20 March 2018

No Change to Weekly Rest Without Appropriate Parking Infrastructure

A prohibition of regular weekly rest and reduced weekly rest in the vehicle will seriously disrupt international road freight transport at a time when the lack of suitable secure parking and rest facilities in the EU is a serious challenge, creating safety risks fore the drivers and the goods. This is the opinion of a group of key European industry stakeholders representing logistics service providers, freight forwarders and express carriers.

Any change to the existing weekly rest rules are only realistic when:

  • drivers continue to be allowed to spend the reduced weekly rests in the cabin
  • when exemptions, which would allow sleeping in the cabin for the 45-hour+ weekly rest subject to verification of a number of well-defined and easily verifiable conditions related to service and security (as proposed by MEP Wim van de Camp) are taken on board
  • the 2013 TEN-T guidelines which foresee approximately every 100 km appropriate parking space for commercial road users with an appropriate level of safety and security are implemented.

In addition, it would be premature to decide on this issue without having seen the findings of the ongoing EC study on adequate parking facilities.

Furthermore, the associations would support to replace the term "home" with the term "country of establishment of the undertaking", which already exists in the EU legislation, to ensure clarity and enforceability (via checks at premises). The rules should allow and encourage employers to organise long weekly rest for drivers in the country of establishment of the undertaking.

CLECAT - European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services 
EEA - European Express Association
FIATA - International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations