CELEX: 31968R1174
Language: en
Date: 1968-07-30 00:00:00
Title: Regulation (EEC) No 1174/68 of the Council of 30 July 1968 on the introduction of a system of bracket tariffs for the carriage of goods by road between Member States

Official Journal of the European Communities                                     411
6.8.68                               Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 194/ 1
                             REGULATION (EEC) No 1174/68 OF THE COUNCIL
                                                    of 30 July 1968
                on the introduction of a system of bracket tariffs for the carriage of goods by road
                                                between Member States
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ,                       fixed by reference to a base-rate, set with due regard
                                                                to the cost of the relevant transport operations and
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                    to the state of the market and in such a way as to
European Economic Community, and in particular                  provide a fair return for carriers ;
Article 75 thereof;
                                                                Whereas the procedure whereby tariffs are to be
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ;             fixed or amended by Member States should be laid
                                                                down ;
Having regard to the Opinion of the European Par­
liament;                                                        Whereas the circumstances should be defined in
                                                                which carriers may make special contracts providing
                                                                for rates which depart from the bracket tariffs ;
Having regard to the Opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee;
                                                                Whereas in the event of disturbances on the transport
                                                                market there should be provision for the conclusion
Whereas the regulation of transport rates and con­              of special contracts to be subjected, for a specific
ditions is an important aspect of the common                    period, to prior approval ;
transport policy provided for under the Treaty;
                                                                Whereas appropriate publication procedures should
Whereas such regulation is to apply first to the                 be instituted for the bracket tariff system, both as
carriage of goods by road between Member States ;               regards tariff rates and as regards special contracts;
whereas for this purpose there should accordingly               whereas, to enable the competent authorities to ob­
be introduced in respect of such carriage a system              tain adequate information as to the state of the mar­
of compulsory bracket tariffs, under which the com­              ket, provision should be made for the organisation of
petent authorities lay down and publish tariffs the              sample surveys of rates applied within the tariff
provisions of which will govern, subject to the                  brackets ;
exceptions and derogations provided for in this Regu­
lation, the fixing of transport rates and conditions ;           Whereas to assist the Commission in implementing
                                                                 this Regulation it is necessary to set up an advisory
Whereas, to enable the experience acquired to be                 committee composed of experts appointed by the
taken into account, the system introduced should                 Member States ;
apply until 31 December 1971 , with a provision for its
extension for a further year in the event of the                 Whereas, to ensure that the Regulation is properly
Council failing to decide by that date on the system             applied, provision should be made for checks on
 to be applied subsequently;                                     compliance and for penalties ;
Whereas the tariff rules established by this Regu­               Whereas it is necessary to define the extent to which,
 lation will in no way affect the position or conditions         having regard to the provisions of Article 232 ( 1 )
 of remuneration of any providers of services ancil­             of the Treaty, this Regulation is to apply to transport
 lary to transport participating in transport oper­              operations covered by the Treaty establishing the
 ations ;                                                        European Coal and Steel Community;
 Whereas tariffs must be drawn up in such a way as               Whereas for economic and practical reasons the new
 to avoid both abuse of dominant positions and dam­              system need not be made to apply to certain types
 aging competition; whereas such tariffs must be                 of carriage;
 ---pagebreak--- 412                                  Official Journal of the European Communities
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :                                 is the States on whose territories the goods are to be
                                                              loaded or unloaded .
                          Article 1
                                                              Each Member State shall bring such tariffs into force
1 . This Regulation shall apply to the carriage of            within two months following the conclusion of ne­
goods by road between Member States of the Com­               gotiations for the fixing or amendment of tariffs
munity, including operations involving transit across         or, as the case may be, following the completion of
a third country.                                              the procedure referred to in paragraph 2 (b ).
2 . All transport operations falling within the terms         2. The Commission may participate in an advisory
of paragraph 1 shall be subject to a system of com­           capacity in negotiations for the fixing or amendment
pulsory bracket tariffs .                                     of tariffs as provided for in paragraph 1 ; it may
                                                              submit to the Member States directly concerned
3 . ' Compulsory tariffs' means a system of tariffs           proposals designed to produce agreement.
prescribed and published by the competent authori­            Member States shall supply the Commission with
ties and governing, subject to the exceptions and             the information necessary for this purpose .
derogations provided for in this Regulation, the
fixing of transport rates and conditions .                    ( a) If an agreement is reached between the Member
                                                                    States directly concerned it shall be notified forth­
                          Article 2                                 with to the Commission and to the other Member
                                                                    States .
1 . 'Bracket tariffs' within the meaning of Article 1
are tariffs laying down maximum and minimum                         Any Member State may ask the Commission to
rates . The difference between these two rates consti­              examine such agreement. The Commission, act­
tutes the bracket spread.                                           ing as soon as possible and after consulting the
                                                                    Committee of Experts provided for in Article 11 ,
2 . The bracket spread shall be 23% of the maximum                  may make a recommendation .
rate .                                                        (b) If the negotiations referred to in paragraph 1 do
                                                                    not result in agreement, or if the negotiations
3 . Rates for any given transport operation may be                  referred to in Article 15 do not result in agree­
freely determined within the upper and lower limits                 ment within the period laid down, the dispute
of the relevant bracket tariff.                                     may be referred to the Commission at the request
                                                                    of any of the Member States concerned. The
Subject to the provisions of Article 5 , the conclusion             Commission, acting as soon as possible and after
of contracts at transport rates falling outside the                 consulting the Committee of Experts provided for
upper or lower limits of the relevant tariff brackets               in Article 11 , shall take a decision, which shall
shall be prohibited .                                               be notified to the Member States concerned and
                                                                    at the same time communicated to the other
                          Article 3                                  Member States .
 1 . Each tariff shall be drawn up by reference to a                This decision shall take effect after the expiry
base-rate, which shall be the middle . point of the                 of a period of twenty days unless before the
 bracket.
                                                                    expiry of that period the matter is referred to
The base-rate shall be fixed having regard both to                   the Council by a Member State.
the average cost of the transport operation con­                     In such a case, the Council shall give its decision
 cerned, including the general expenses of the business,             by a qualified majority within twenty days .
for . a properly managed undertaking enjoying nor­
 mal conditions of use of its carrying capacity, and           (c) Decisions by the Council or the Commission
 to market conditions, and shall be such as to provide              referred to in (b) above shall remain in force
 a fair return for carriers .                                        until such time as an agreement is concluded
                                                                     between the Member States concerned or until
2. Tariffs may vary according to the circumstances                   any further decision by the Council or the Com­
 of the service provided, and in particular according                mission in accordance with the procedure laid
 to the technical and economic characteristics of the                down in this Article.
 operation in question, the route concerned, the length
of the transit period, the tonnage conditions, and the         3 . Tariffs shall be communicated by Member States
 type of goods carried .                                       to the Commission .
                          Article 4                                                     Article 5
 1 . Tariffs shall be fixed or amended by agreement             1 . By way of derogation from Article 2 (3 ), special
 between the Member States directly concerned, that            contracts may be concluded in writing between a
 ---pagebreak---                                    Official Journal of the European Communities                                     413
carrier and another party at transport rates outside                 hide is registered shall inform the other Member
the upper or lower limits of the relevant tariff                    States and the Commission of any measures taken .
brackets .
The conclusion of such contracts shall be allowed               6. In the event of any disturbance on the transport
subject to the following conditions :                           market in respect of the carriage of certain products
                                                                over certain routes, the conclusion of special con­
— circumstances must exist which were not taken                 tracts may, for a specific period, be made subject to
    into account at the time when the tariffs were              prior approval by the competent authorities of the
    fixed, as, in particular, where a special contract          Member States directly concerned, that is the States
    is made in response to the requirements of com­             where the goods are to be loaded and unloaded .
    petition or where it is entered into for a certain
    period ; and                                                In such cases the carrier may not carry out the
                                                                transport operation concerned until he has received
— the tonnage to be carried under any such con­                 authorisation from the competent authorities of the
    tract within any three-month period must be not             Member State where the goods are to be loaded, after
    less than 500 metric tons .                                 they have received the consent of the competent
                                                                authorities of the Member State where the goods are
Special contracts must in all cases be such as to               to be unloaded .
maintain or increase the carrier's trading returns .
                                                                7. Such procedure shall be brought into operation
2 . On concluding any special contract the carrier              one month after a request from any Member State
shall forthwith communicate the terms thereof to
                                                                directly concerned, provided the other Member State
the competent authorities of the Member State of                directly concerned accedes thereto . Any Member
origin, that is the State where his vehicles are regis­         State may ask the Commission to examine the pro­
tered, or, if this is not the State where the goods are         cedure. The Commission, acting as soon as possible
to be loaded or unloaded, then the State on whose               and after consulting the Committee of Experts pro­
territory the goods are to be loaded.                           vided for in Article 11 , may make a recommen­
When communicating the terms of the contract the                dation .
carrier shall attach all particulars supporting the             If the other Member State directly concerned does
conclusion of the contract and the rates agreed.                not accede to the request, the procedure shall come
                                                                into operation only after a decision by the Council,
3 . Those authorities shall send copies of all the              acting by a qualified majority on a proposal sub­
relevant documents to the competent authorities of              mitted by the Commission after hearing the opinion
the Member States concerned, that is the Member                 of the Committee of Experts provided for in Ar­
States of registration of the vehicles and the States           ticle 11 .
where the goods are to be loaded and unloaded.
                                                                8 . The market shall be considered disturbed, where,
4. The authorities referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3            in particular, the average level of rates applied over
shall, using the information contained in the docu­             a given period is not sufficient for a properly man­
ments submitted, institute all investigations and in­           aged transport undertaking enjoying normal con­
quiries they consider desirable in order to check that          ditions of use of its carrying capacity to operate at a
the parties to the contract have complied with the              profit.
provisions of this Regulation.
                                                                                         Article 6
5 . If as a result of these investigations it is found
that there has been any breach of the provisions of             Bracket tariffs shall be officially published in the
this Regulation :                                               Member States concerned. The particulars published
                                                                shall include the dates of their entry into force. Only
— the competent authorities of the Member States               the maximum rate for each bracket need be published
    may require that during a prescribed period those
    carriers whose vehicles are registered on their ter­                                Article 7
    ritory shall not perform any special contract
    without prior authorisation as provided for in              Transport rates and conditions which, in accordance
    the second subparagraph of paragraph 6 ;                    with the provisions of Article 5, depart from the
                                                                published tariffs shall be communicated by the com­
— the competent authorities of the Member States                petent authorities to the bodies referred to in Ar­
    concerned may, in addition to the steps which              ticle 8 .
    they may take in accordance with their own re­
    gulations, request the competent authorities of                                     Article 8
    the State where any vehicle concerned is regis­
    tered to apply the measures referred to in the              1 . Each Member State shall designate or set up a
    preceding subparagraph. The State where the ve­             body or bodies to be responsible for the publi­
 ---pagebreak--- 414                                      Official Journal of the European Communities
cation of the transport rates and conditions referred                                    Article 11
to in Article 7.
                                                                  1 . A Committee of Experts is hereby attached to
                                                                  the Commission for the purpose of assisting in the
2. Each such body shall publish forthwith the fol­                implementation of this Regulation and of the pro­
lowing particulars of all special contracts notified to           visions adopted for its application .
it relating to any transport operation whose loading
point is situated within the area for which it is                 The Committee shall consist of not more than two
responsible :                                                     government experts appointed by each Member State
                                                                  and shall have a representative of the Commission
— name of carrier;                                                as Chairman .
— route or routes concerned ;                                     The Committee shall be convened by the Chairman,
— type of goods ;                                                 either on his own initiative or at the request of a
                                                                  Member State. At least eight days' notice shall be
— tonnage ;                                                       given of meetings and such notice shall include de­
— rates agreed;                                                   tails of the agenda. Less than eight days' notice may
                                                                  be given in cases of urgency.
— date on which the contract was made;
— duration of contract;                                           2. In any case expressly provided for in this Regu­
                                                                  lation, the Committee shall when so requested by the
— principal special conditions .                                   Commission give an advisory opinion. Any such
                                                                  opinion of the Committee must state the reasons
In addition each such body shall at the end of each                on which it is based and be given within a time limit
month draw up and publish a return, broken down                    fixed by its Chairman. Opinions shall be adopted by
by class of goods and route, of all contracts pro­                 a qualified majority within the meaning of the first
viding for the loading or unloading of goods within               subparagraph and second subparagraph, first indent,
its area .
                                                                   of Article 148 (2) of the Treaty. The Chairman shall
 These returns shall be sent immediately to the Com­               not vote .
mission, which shall forward them to the competent
authorities of the Member States. Every six months                3 . Every six months the Committee shall draw up
the Commission shall draw up a report on the basis                 a report on market trends.
of the afore-mentioned returns .
                                                                   4. The Committee shall be given all such infor­
                                                                   mation as it may need to carry out the tasks laid
                         Article 9
                                                                   upon it. It shall automatically receive from the Com­
Detailed rules for giving effect to Articles 7 and 8               mission the returns of contracts published pursuant
shall be adopted by the Commission, after hearing                  to Article 8 by the bodies responsible for publication .
the opinion of the Committee of Experts provided                   By way of derogation from Article 15 (2) of Regu­
for in Article 11 , within six months following the                lation No ll 1 on the abolition of discrimination in
 entry into force of this Regulation . .                           transport rates and conditions, adopted in implemen­
                                                                   tation of Article 79 (3 ) of the Treaty establishing
                         Article 10                                the European Economic Community, the Committee
                                                                   shall also be entitled to have access to information
 1 . To enable the competent authorities to obtain
 adequate information as to the state of the market,               collected in pursuance of that Regulation.
 sample surveys shall be made of rates applied within
 the tariff brackets .                                                                    Article 12
 Such surveys shall concern the rates charged for the               1 . Member States shall, in good time and after con­
 carriage of certain types of goods on major routes.                sulting the Committee, adopt such laws, regulations
 The results of the surveys shall not be published.                or administrative provisions as may be necessary
 They shall, however, be sent to the competent auth­               for the implementation of this Regulation .
 orities of the Member States concerned and to the                 Such measures shall cover, inter alia, the organi­
 Commission, so as to enable them to carry out their               sation of, procedure for and means of carrying out,
 task of supervising the market.                                    checks on compliance and the penalties applicable in
                                                                    case of breach .
 2. The Council, acting by a qualified majority on
 a proposal submitted by the Commission after hear­                2 . The Commission, if so requested by a Member
 ing the opinion of the Committee of Experts pro­                  State or if it considers it appropriate, shall consult
 vided for in Article 11 , shall lay down, in so far as
 may be necessary, the programme of such surveys
  and the details for carrying them out.                           1 OJ No 52, 16.8.1960, p. 1121 .
 ---pagebreak---                                    Official Journal of the European Communities                                      415
with the Member States concerned upon the pro­                  Negotiations for the fixing of such tariffs must be
posed terms of measures as referred to in paragraph 1 .         completed not later than ten months after the entry
                                                                into force of this Regulation .
3 . Member States shall assist each other in applying
the provisions of this Regulation and in checking                                        Article 16
compliance therewith.
                                                                This Regulation shall not apply :
4. If the competent authorities of a Member State
are aware of a breach of the provisions of this Regu­           ( a) to the carriage of goods not exceeding five metric
lation, they shall report it to the other Member                     tons in total weight consigned by a single con­
States directly concerned. The competent authorities                 signor to a single consignee;
shall notify each other of all information in their             (b) to the carriage of goods over a distance which
possession concerning the penalties imposed for such                 in total does not exceed fifty kilometres ;
breaches .
                                                                (c) to the types of carriage listed in Annexes I and
                        Article 13                                   II to the First Council Directive1 on the establish­
                                                                     ment of certain common rules for international
All information obtained in implementation of this                   transport (carriage of goods by road for hire or
Regulation shall be covered by the obligation of                     reward);
professional secrecy, unless its publication is expressly
provided for by the Regulation ;                                (d) to carriage involving the use of special vehicles
                                                                     or special traffic arrangements.
                        Article 14
                                                                                         Article 17
The provisions of this Regulation shall apply to
transport operations covered by the Treaty estab­               This Regulation shall remain in force until 31 De­
lishing the European Coal and Steel Community, in so            cember 1971 and then, in the event of the Council
far as that Treaty or the provisions implementing it            not having decided before 31 December 1971 on the
do not contain special provisions in that respect.              system to be applied thereafter, for a further period
                                                                of one year.
                        Article IS
                                                                                          Article 18
Tariffs shall be fixed in accordance with the pro­
cedures laid down in Article 4 not later than one year          This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 Septem­
after the entry into force of this Regulation.                  ber 1968 .
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety applicable in all Member States .
              Done at Brussels, 30 July 1968 .
                                                                                        For the Council
                                                                                          The President
                                                                                            G. MEDICI
                                                                1 OJ No 70, 6.8.1962, p. 2005.