Legal changes concerning operational bases of road carriers

In 2023, further changes related to the Mobility Package will come into force. EU law has forced national legislators to, among others, clarification of the definition of the operational base and the introduction of new obligations for road hauliers related to the operational base.
What are the most important changes in this field?

The operational base is a place adapted to conduct transport activities in an organized and continuous manner, at the disposal of the entrepreneur. It consists of at least one of the following: a parking space for vehicles used in road transport, a place for maintenance or repair of vehicles, a place for loading, unloading or combining loads. The operational base is also understood as the employer’s operational center in which the employer is to organize the driver’s return in order to take the weekly rest referred to in the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 on the harmonization of certain social provisions relating to road transport.

Legal basis

Until now, having a carrier’s operational base was a mere formality, while the new regulations impose certain conditions on carriers that must be met. This is regulated by the provisions of the Act of January 26, 2022 amending the Road Transport Act, the Act on drivers’ working time and some other acts, which implements the EU provisions contained in the Mobility Package I. The regulations entered into force in March 2022, but the legislator gave entrepreneurs time to adapt to the new requirements by the end of the year. This means that from 1 January 2023, the obligations required by the Act must be fulfilled by all entrepreneurs who obtained a permit to practice as a road transport operator before March 2022. This also applies to those entrepreneurs against whom proceedings to obtain a permit were initiated before March 2022 and were not resolved before the entry into force of the new regulations.

Statement on the disposal of the operational base

Entrepreneurs engaged in road transport with authorisation to pursue the occupation of road transport operator were required by the provisions of the Act to submit a declaration on having an operational base adapted to conduct transport activities and to indicate the address of this base.
The deadline for submitting the above declarations expired on January 15, 2023, and the body to which the declaration had to be submitted is the organization issuing the permit to pursue the occupation of road transport operator. Entrepreneurs could use a template of the declaration which was posted on the government website gov.pl as an OB form.

Statements on the number of employees

The next deadline that entrepreneurs dealing with domestic and international road transport must watch is March 31. By this date, each year they are required to submit a statement on the number of employees as at 31 December of the previous year, regardless of the form of employment. In addition, they must also provide information on the arithmetic average of the number of drivers employed in transport operations in the previous year. And in this case, the form of employment does not matter. As in the case of the declaration on the disposal of the operational base, the declaration on the number of employees should be submitted to the authority that issued the permit to pursue the occupation of road transport operator. 

The minimum number of places in the database

Since the size of the operational base must be adequate to the scale of an entrepreneur’s activity, the regulations also specify the minimum number of parking spaces in the base. This is due to the need to ensure the freedom to dispose of both vehicles and drivers, so that efficient service of transport services can be guaranteed. The requirement to have a base by the entrepreneur is deemed to be fulfilled if the base is located on the territory of the Republic of Poland, and the number of parking spaces for vehicles performing road transport corresponds to at least 1/3 of the number of vehicles reported by the road transport operator to the authority issuing the permit to pursue the occupation of road transport operator. If an entrepreneur submitted no more than 2 vehicles, his base must have at least one parking space. This rule also applies if the entrepreneur has more than one operational base – the sum of all parking spaces in the depots must correspond to at least 1/3 of the number of vehicles registered by the entrepreneur.

2023 – what other changes will it bring?

The new regulations regarding the requirements related to operational bases are not the end of the changes resulting from the provisions of the Mobility Package this year. From August 21, 2023, all newly registered vehicles must be equipped with new, smart tachographs, which enable, among others, automatic registration of loading and unloading places, crossing the border, or the type of transport performed. Those carriers who are planning to expand their fleet of vehicles this year must remember this.