Directive 2006/1/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of  18 January 2006  on the use of vehicles hired without drivers for the carriage of goods by road (codified version)   (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2006-01-18
Institutions: Council of the European Union, European Parliament
Subjects: carriage of goods, codification of EU law, road transport, vehicle rental

L 33/82

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

4.2.2006

DIRECTIVE 2006/1/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

on the use of vehicles hired without drivers for the carriage of goods by road

of 18 January 2006

(codified version)

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EURO-
PEAN UNION,

(b)

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu-
nity, and in particular Article 71 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

‘hired vehicle’ means any vehicle which, for remuneration
and for a determined period, is put at the disposal of an
undertaking which engages in the carriage of goods by road
for hire or reward or for its own account on the basis of a
contract with the undertaking which makes the vehicles
available.

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and
Social Committee (1),

Article 2

After consulting the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251
of the Treaty (2),

1.
Each Member State shall allow the use within its territory,
for the purposes of traffic between Member States, of vehicles
hired by undertakings established on the territory of another
Member State provided that:

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Council Directive 84/647/EEC of 19 December 1984 on
the use of vehicles hired without drivers for the carriage of
goods by road (3) has been substantially amended (4). In the
interests of clarity and rationality the said Directive should
be codified.

From a macroeconomic point of view, the use of hired
vehicles permits, in certain situations, an optimum alloca-
tion of resources by limiting the wasteful use of factors of
production.

From a microeconomic point of view, this possibility
brings an element of flexibility to the organisation of trans-
port, and thus increases the productivity of the undertak-
ings concerned.

This Directive should be without prejudice to the obliga-
tions of the Member States concerning the time-limits for
transposition into national law of the Directives set out in
Annex I, Part B,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

For the purposes of this Directive:

(a)

‘vehicle’ means a motor vehicle, a trailer, a semi-trailer, or a
combination of vehicles intended exclusively for the carriage
of goods;

(1) OJ C 108, 30.4.2004, p. 56.
(2) Opinion of the European Parliament of 10 February 2004 (OJ C 97 E,

22.4.2004, p. 66) and Council Decision of 8 December 2005.

(3) OJ L 335, 22.12.1984, p. 72. Directive as amended by Directive

90/398/EEC (OJ L 202, 31.7.1990, p. 46).

(4) See Annex I, part A.

(a)

the vehicle is registered or put into circulation in compliance
with the laws in the latter Member State;

(b)

the contract relates solely to the hiring of a vehicle without a
driver and is not accompanied by a service contract con-
cluded with the same undertaking covering driving or accom-
panying personnel;

(c)

the hired vehicle is at the sole disposal of the undertaking
using it during the period of the hire contract;

(d)

the hired vehicle is driven by personnel of the undertaking
using it.

2.
Proof of compliance with the conditions referred to in para-
graph 1, points (a) to (d) shall be provided by the following docu-
ments, which must be on board the vehicle:

(a)

the contract of hire, or a certified extract from that contract
giving in particular the name of the lessor, the name of the
lessee, the date and duration of the contract and the identifi-
cation of the vehicle;

(b) where the driver is not the person hiring the vehicle, the driv-
er’s employment contract or a certified extract from that con-
tract giving in particular the name of the employer, the name
of the employee and the date and duration of the employ-
ment contract or a recent pay slip.

If need be, the documents referred to in (a) and (b) may be replaced
by an equivalent document issued by the competent authorities of
the Member State.

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Article 3

(e)

the conditions governing access to the activity or occupation
of road-vehicle lessor.

1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure
that their undertakings may use, for the carriage of goods by road,
under the same conditions as vehicles owned by them, hired
vehicles registered or put into circulation in compliance with the
laws in their countries, provided that the conditions laid down in
Article 2 are satisfied.

2. Member States may exclude from the provisions of para-
graph 1 own-account transport operations carried out by vehicles
with a total permissible laden weight of more than 6 tonnes.

Article 4

This Directive shall not affect the regulations of a Member State
which lays down less restrictive conditions for the use of hired
vehicles than those specified in Articles 2 and 3.

Article 5

Article 6

Directive 84/647/EEC is hereby repealed, without prejudice to the
obligations of the Member States relating to the time-limits for
transposition into national law of the Directives listed in Annex I,
Part B.

References to the repealed Directive shall be construed as refer-
ences to this Directive and should be read in accordance with the
correlation table set out in Annex II.

Article 7

This Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day follow-
ing that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European
Union.

Without prejudice to Articles 2 and 3, this Directive shall not
affect the application of the rules concerning:

Article 8

(a)

the organisation of the market for the carriage of goods by
road for hire or reward and own account and in particular
access to the market and quota restrictions on road capacities;

(b) prices and conditions for the carriage of goods by road;

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Strasbourg, 18 January 2006.

(c)

the formation of hire prices;

(d)

the import of vehicles;

For the European Parliament
The President
J. BORRELL FONTELLES

For the Council
The President
H. WINKLER

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Official Journal of the European Union

4.2.2006

ANNEX I

Part A

Repealed Directive with its amendment

(referred to in Article 6)

Council Directive 84/647/EEC

Council Directive 90/398/EEC

(OJ L 335, 22.12.1984, p. 72)

(OJ L 202, 31.7.1990, p. 46)

Part B

List of time-limits for transposition into national law

(referred to in Article 6)

Directive

Time-limit for transposition

Directive 84/647/EEC

Directive 90/398/EEC

30 June 1986

31 December 1990

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ANNEX II

Correlation Table

Directive 84/647/EEC

This Directive

Article 1, introductory sentence

Article 1, introductory sentence

Article 1, first indent

Article 1, second indent

Article 1(a)

Article 1(b)

Article 2, introductory sentence

Article 2(1), introductory sentence

Article 2, points 1-4

Article 2(1)(a)-(d)

Article 2, point 5, first subparagraph, introductory
sentence

Article 2(2), first subparagraph, introductory sentence

Article 2, point 5, first subparagraph, points (a) and (b)

Article 2(2), first subparagraph, points (a) and (b)

Article 2, point 5, second subparagraph

Article 2(2), second subparagaph

Article 3

Article 4(1)

Article 3

Article 4

Article 5, introductory sentence

Article 5, introductory sentence

Article 5, first indent

Article 5, second indent

Article 5, third indent

Article 5, fourth indent

Article 5, fifth indent

Article 6

Article 7

Article 8

—

—

Article 9

—

—

Article 5(a)

Article 5(b)

Article 5(c)

Article 5(d)

Article 5(e)

—

—

—

Article 6

Article 7

Article 8

Annex I

Annex II