CELEX: 51993PC0665
Language: en
Date: 1993-12-15
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL DIRECTIVE on uniform procedures for checks on the transport of dangerous goods by road

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                    C0M(93) 665 final - SYN 487
                                    Brussels, 15 December 1993
                     Proposal for a
                   COUNCIL P1PECTJV5
                on uniform procedures
            for checks on the transport of
                dangerous goods by road
             (presented by the Commission)
 ---pagebreak---                               _/l -.
                           EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
A. Preliminary remarks
In recent years there has been a marked increase in the transport of
dangerous goods by road, in line with economic development.
In volume terms, the transport of dangerous goods by road accounts for about
15% of total land transport tonnage, according to an OECD estimate.
The number of Community road vehicles transporting dangerous goods is
estimated at about 20% of the total number of goods vehicles: in other
words, at any time some 2 million vehicles are carrying dangerous goods on
the Community's road network.
In view of the scale of this phenomenon, and in response to tragic accidents
involving consignments of dangerous goods during the 1980s, the Commission
decided to examine the matter and — without in any way questioning the
quality of the work carried out in this field within the relevant
international organizations — to draw up and send the Council a series of
proposals aimed at improving the conditions for the transport of dangerous
goods by road.
Special mention should be made of the measures relating to:
-  vocational training for drivers of vehicles carrying dangerous goods by
   road;l
-  vocational training for road haulage operators transporting dangerous
   goods by road;2
-  minimum requirements for certain tankers entering or leaving Community
   ports;3
-  the appointment of an officer for the prevention of the risks inherent in
   the carriage of dangerous goods in undertakings which transport such
   goods, and on the vocational qualification of such officers.4
                                      *
                                    *   *
1  Directive 89/684/EEC of 21 December 1989, OJ No L 398, 30.12.1989.
2  Directive 89/438/EEC of 21 June 1989, OJ No L 212, 22.7.1989.
3  Directive 79/116/EEC of 21 December 1978, OJ No L 33, 8.2.1979.
4  Proposal for a Directive COM(91) 4 final of 11 June 1991.
 ---pagebreak---                                      - 2 -
This Directive has been drawn up with a view to improving and ensuring
 compliance with the safety conditions for the transport of dangerous goods
by road and eliminating barriers to the free movement of dangerous goods
transported by road throughout the Community.
 In the absence of international or Community rules governing checks on
compliance with safety standards for the transport of dangerous goods by
road, this Directive introduces a uniform procedure for such checks which
will apply both within the Community and to consignments entering the
Community from third countries.
This measure is all the more essential as the Council is called on to adopt
a Directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning
the transport of dangerous goods by road.5
B. Justification with regard to the principle of subsidiarity
 (a)  What are the objectives of this Directive in terms of the obligations
      of the Community?
      This Directive has three main objectives:
      - to introduce a system of checks on the transport of dangerous goods
        by road which takes account of the elimination of such checks at the
        Community's internal borders pursuant to Regulations (EEC) Nos
        4060/896 and 3912/927 and interrupts such transport as little as
        possible;
5   OJ No ...
6   OJ No L 390 of 30 December 1989.
7   OJ No L 395 of 31 December 1992.
 ---pagebreak---                                    - 3 -
      in the context of the future Directive on the approximation of
      national safety standards for the transport of dangerous goods by
      road, to introduce a uniform and sufficiently effective framework for
      checks on compliance with those standards by road haulage operators;
      to apply this uniform framework not only to the transport of
      dangerous goods within the Community but also to road vehicles
      transporting dangerous goods coming from third countries.
(b) Does this measure fall within a field of exclusive Community
    competence?
    Shared competence: Article 75(1)(c) of the Treaty
(c) What is the scale of the problem (for example, how many Member States
    are concerned and what solution has been in force hitherto)?
    There is no international convention governing checks on the transport
    of dangerous goods by road. As a result, and in the absence of common
    standards applicable by all Member States, checks are based on national
    standards, which obviously differ from one Member State to another.
    This leads to permanent uncertainty regarding compliance with the
    applicable safety standards and a succession of checks during journeys.
(d) What is the most effective solution, given the resources of the
    Community and of the Member States?
    In view of the specificity of the products concerned and the very
    strict safety standards which must be applied to their transport, in
    the complete absence of coordination the action taken by the various
    Member States can lead to a level of checks which is either inadequate
    or excessive. The harmonization and coordination of checks at Community
    level can ensure an adequate level of checks and, as a result, greater
    compliance with the provisions governing the transport of dangerous
    goods, while avoiding serious disruption of the movements of the
    vehicles concerned. The elimination of successive checks during a
    journey and the reduction to 30 minutes of the time required for such
    checks will have a favourable impact on the efficiency of such
    transport.
 ---pagebreak---                                    » 4 -
(e) What concrete added value does the envisaged Community measure have and
    what would be the cost of failing to act?
    Regulations (EEC) Nos 4060/89 and 3912/92, referred to above,
    eliminated checks on the transport of dangerous goods carried out at
    the Community's internal borders, a step which was necessary for the
    completion of an internal market without internal borders. However,
    achievement of this objective did not bring with it the optimum
    fluidity of such transport throughout the Community. As stated at (c)
    above, in the absence of Community or international standards for
    checks on the transport of dangerous goods, the Member States find
    themselves obliged, on account of the specificity of the goods
    transported, to continue to apply within their respective territories
    their own criteria as regards compliance with the safety standards for
    the transport of dangerous goods, and these criteria obviously vary;
    this results in a proliferation of checks during each journey and the
    continued disruption of transport operations which it was the main
    objective of the above-mentioned Regulation to eliminate.
    A measure of this kind is all the more necessary as the Council will be
    asked at the same time to adopt a Directive approximating the laws of
    the Member States on the transport of dangerous goods by road. This
    Directive, introducing uniform procedures for checks on the transport
    of dangerous goods by road, makes compliance with the safety standards
    laid down in the above-mentioned Directive credible and therefore
    effective.
(f) What measures are available to the Community?
(g) Are uniform rules necessary or would a directive specifying general
    objectives and leaving it to the Member States to adopt appropriate
    measures to achieve them suffice?
    The adoption of common rules embodied in a binding legal instrument is
    essential, given the specific nature of the transport operations
    concerned. Goods transport is by definition extremely mobile. It
    includes domestic transport, transport between Member States and
    transport to and from third countries. Compliance with the very strict
    safety standards applying to the transport of dangerous goods and
    checks on such compliance must follow criteria which are as nearly
 ---pagebreak---                                      - 5 -
      identical as possible in all Member States in order to avoid being a
      danger to human life, property and the environment and a serious
      obstacle to the free movement of products and the vehicles concerned
      throughout the Community.
      In procedural terms, a directive can attain the objective pursued, as
      this legislation is addressed principally to governments and is
      intended to be incorporated into existing legislation.
C. Objectives and content of the proposal for a Directive
The proposal for a Directive is intended to attain the following objectives:
-   to enable checks on the transport of dangerous goods within the Community
   to take place throughout the territory of the Member States, provided
   they are carried out within the framework of normal checks and without
   discrimination on the basis of the nationality of the drivers or
   vehicles. The same applies to the transport of dangerous goods coming
   from third countries, in that checks need not necessarily take place at
   the external border of the Member State where the consignments in
   question enter the Community (Article 3 ) ;
-  to define a uniform and sufficiently comprehensive list of the minimum
   safety aspects to be checked and the infringements to be penalized (first
   sentence of Article 4(a));
-  to apply the above-mentioned uniform list also to consignments
   transported by vehicles registered or having received authorization to
   use the highways in a third country, whether or not that country is a
   contracting party to the ADR. Checks on such vehicles, and in particular
   on the items listed in Annex I, are intended to ensure that such vehicles
   comply with ADR standards;
-  to provide the driver with a copy of the results of the checks carried
   out, in order to avoid a succession of such checks during a journey,
   wherever possible (second sentence of Article 4(a));
   to arrange for checks to be carried out in the road haulage undertaking
   concerned or the undertaking responsible for loading the vehicle, in
   particular where infringements jeopardizing the safety of the transport
   of dangerous goods have been detected during roadside checks (Article 6 ) ;
-  to encourage the reporting of carriers who have committed infringements
   to the Member State in which the vehicle is registered or the undertaking
   responsible for loading the vehicle is established (Article 7(2));
-  to encourage cooperation between Member States with a view to recording
   and penalizing infringements uncovered during roadside checks
   (Article 8 ) .
 ---pagebreak---                               - G-
             Proposal for a Council Directive on uniform procedures
                         for checks on the transport of
                             dangerous goods by road
 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in
 particular Article 75 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,*
 in cooperation with the European Parliament,^
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,^
Whereas the Community has adopted a number of measures for the establishment
of an internal market comprising an area without internal frontiers in which
the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in
accordance with the provisions of the Treaty;
Whereas checks on the transport of dangerous goods by road carried out at
internal frontiers were abolished pursuant to Regulation (EEC) No 4060/89,4
as amended by Regulation (EEC) No 3356/91,5 and Regulation (EEC)
No 3912/92;6
1
2
3
4   OJ No L 390, 30.12.1989.
5   OJ No L 318, 20.11.1991.
6   OJ No L 395, 31.12.1992.
 ---pagebreak---                               - ^  " ,
Whereas, in the absence of Community coordination, there is a risk that the
 checks carried out by the Member States throughout their territory will
prove either excessive, with certain of the vehicles concerned being stopped
repeatedly, or insufficient;
Whereas the Community is in the process of adopting a Directive on the
approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning the transport of
dangerous goods by road;7 whereas the procedures for checking this type of
transport should accordingly be harmonized in order for compliance with the
safety standards laid down therein to be verified more effectively;
Whereas, in the light of the principle of subsidiarity, Community action is
therefore necessary to improve the level of safety of the transport of
dangerous goods, while at the same time ensuring the necessary fluidity of
such transport;
Whereas a uniform and sufficiently comprehensive list of items to be
checked, applicable to such transport throughout the Community, should
therefore be established;
Whereas it is necessary to identify a minimum number of infringements deemed
sufficiently serious by all Member States to result in the application to
the vehicles concerned of appropriate measures depending on the
circumstances or the requirements of safety, including, where appropriate,
refusal to admit the vehicles concerned to the Community;
Whereas in order to Improve compliance with safety standards for the
transport of dangerous goods by road it is necessary to make provision for
checks to be carried out also in undertakings in Member States where the
goods were packaged, collected, stored, loaded or unloaded, in particular
when serious infringements of laws on the transport of dangerous goods have
been recorded on the road;
7   OJ No
 ---pagebreak---                                    -8-
Whereas the checks in question must apply to all consignments of dangerous
goods transported by road wholly or partly within the territory of the
Member States, irrespective of the point of departure or the destination of
the goods or the country in which the vehicle is registered,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE
                                  Article 1
This Directive shall apply to checks carried out by Member States on the
transport of dangerous goods by road in vehicles entering or travelling in
their territory.
It shall not apply to the transport of dangerous goods carried out by
vehicles belonging to the armed forces or for which they are responsible, or
to postal consignments.
                                  Article 2
For the purposes of this Directive:
   "dangerous goods" means dangerous goods defined as such in the Council
   Directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States
   concerning the transport of dangerous goods by road;8
   "undertakings" means any natural person, whether or not profit-seeking,
   any association or group of persons without legal personality, whether or
   not profit-seeking, and any body coming under a public authority,
8  OJ No
 ---pagebreak---                                -3,
    whether itself possessing legal personality or dependent on an authority
    having such personality, which carry, load, or unload dangerous goods or
    cause them to be carried, and those which store, collect, package or take
   delivery of such goods for their later conveyance, which are located in
   the territory of the Community;
    "check" means any check, control, inspection, verification or formality
   carried out on the road or in undertakings for reasons of safety inherent
   in the transport of dangerous goods;
   "consignment" means a consignment of dangerous goods transported wholly
   or partly on the road network of a Member State;
   "vehicle" means any vehicle falling within the scope of the ADR or, as
   the case may be, the Council Directive on the approximation of the laws
   of the Member States concerning the transport of dangerous goods by road.
                                  Article 3
Consignments of dangerous goods transported within or entering the Community
may be checked in the territory of a Member State, provided such checks are
not carried out at the internal frontiers of the Community but as part of
normal checks and without discrimination on the basis of the nationality of
the drivers or vehicles concerned, in order to check their compliance with
the laws on the transport of dangerous goods by road.
 ---pagebreak---                                 - Ao -
                                   Article 4
 (a) These checks must cover at least the items included in the checklist in
     Annex I. A duplicate checklist showing the result of the check duly
      certified by the authority which carried it out shall be given to the
     driver of the vehicle and presented on request in order to avoid, where
     possible, repetition of the check later in the journey.
 (b) These checks shall be made at different places, at any time of day, and
     cover a sufficiently extensive portion of the road network to make
     checkpoints difficult to avoid.
 (c) These places shall be selected so as to make it possible to bring
     infringing vehicles into compliance or to immobilize them without
     causing a safety hazard.
 (d) Where appropriate, samples of the goods transported may be taken for
     examination by recognized laboratories.
 (e) Except where an infringement constituting a safety hazard is
     established, the time taken to conduct a check shall not normally
     exceed half an hour.
                                  Article 5
Without prejudice to other penalties which may be imposed, consignments in
respect of which one or more infringements of the safety standards for the
transport of dangerous goods among those listed in Annex II are established
shall be immobilized, either on the spot or at a place designated for this
purpose by the authorities carrying out the check, and obliged to be brought
into conformity before continuing their journey or be subject to other
appropriate measures depending on the circumstances or the requirements of
safety.
 ---pagebreak---                                  -"M
                                    Article 6
 1. Checks may also be carried out at the premises of undertakings, in
    particular where infringements which jeopardize safety in the transport
    of dangerous goods have been recorded on the road.
 2. The purpose of such checks shall be to ensure that safety conditions for
    the transport of dangerous goods by road comply with the relevant laws.
                                   Article 7
 1. Member States shall assist each other to give proper effect to this
    Directive.
2. Infringements jeopardizing the safety of the transport of dangerous goods
    committed by a non-resident carrier or consignor must be reported to the
    competent authorities in the Member State in which the vehicle is
    registered or in which the consigning undertaking is established.
3. The competent authorities of the Member State in which an infringement
    has been recorded may, in the case of a second or subsequent offence, ask
    the competent authorities of the Member State in which the vehicle is
    registered or in which the consigning undertaking is established for
    appropriate penalties to be imposed against the offender or offenders.
                                   Article 8
If the findings of a roadside check on a vehicle registered in another
Member State give grounds for believing that infringements have been
committed which cannot be detected in the course of that check in the
absence of the necessary data, the competent authorities of the Member
 ---pagebreak---                                , 1Z-   .
 States concerned must assist each other in order to clarify the situation.
 Where, to that end, the competent Member State carries out a check on the
 premises of the undertaking, the other Member State concerned shall be
 notified of the results.
                                   Article 9
Each Member State shall send the Commission each year a report on the
application of this Directive and in particular on the results of checks
carried out in its territory. The report shall be drawn up in accordance
with the model given in Annex III and shall be sent to the Commission before
the anniversary of the adoption of this Directive.
                                  Article 10
1. Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and
    administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by
    1 January 1995. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.
    When Member States adopt these provisions they shall contain a reference
    to this Directive or shall be accompanied by such a reference on their
    official publication. The procedures for making this reference shall be
    determined by the Member States.
2. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the text of the
   essential provisions of domestic law which they adopt in the field
   governed by this Directive.
 ---pagebreak---                                 - 43-
                                 Article 11
This Directive is addressed to the Member States,
Done at Brussels,                               For the Council
                                                The President
 ---pagebreak---                             - H vj
                                                           ANNEX I
                                    CHECKLIST
Place of check                 Date                     Time
Type of vehicle, registration No
 lorry/road train/articulated vehicle with     Trailer/semi-trailer
cargo body/tank/container
Transport undertaking
Driver                                                     Nationality
Driver's mate                                              Nationality
Consignor, address, place of consignment           Consignee, address,
                                                   destination
Number and weight of packages
Transport by:
    fixed tank/removable tank/tank-container/battery of receptacles/in bulk/
    container/package
Transport documents
1.    Transport/accompanying document
         on board      not on board
         regulation    non-regulation
2.    Written instructions
         on board      not on board
         regulation    non-regulation
3.    Bilateral/multilateral agreement/national authorization
         on board      not on board         not applicable
4.    Vehicle type-approval certificates
         on board      not on board
         regulation    non-regulation
5.    Driver's training certificate
         on board      not on board
         regulation    non-regulation
 ---pagebreak---                                  45
Circulation of vehicle
6.   Goods authorized for transport
        yes           no
7.   Transport in bulk/packages
        regulation     non-regulation
8.   Transport in tanks
        regulation     non-regulation
9.   Prohibition on mixed loading
        observed      not observed      not applicable
10.  Handling and stowage
        regulation     non-regulation
11.  Leakage of goods or damage to packages
        leakage       damage
12.  UN No/labelling of packages
        regulation     non-regulation
13.  Filling of tank
        regulation    non-regulation
14.  Special vehicle markings
        yes           no
        regulation    non-regulation
15.  Tank or bulk transport danger labels
        yes           no
        regulation    non-regulation
16.  Prohibition on smoking
        observed      not observed         not applicable
Vehicle equipment
17.  Toolkit for running repairs
        on board      not on board
 ---pagebreak---                                 iQ
18. At least one chock per vehicle
       regulation     non-regulation
19. Two orange lights
       on board       not on board
       regulation     non-regulation
20. Vehicle equipment
       regulation     non-regulation
21. Fire extinguisher
       on board       not on board
       regulation     non-regulation
22. Driver protection equipment
       on board       not on board
       regulation     non-regulation not applicable
                                     Authority/officer
                                     having carried out the check
 ---pagebreak---                                  -4*
                                                                    ANNEX II
                                INFRINGEMENTS
For the purposes of this Directive the following in particular shall be
regarded as infringements:
(1   Goods not authorized for transport
(2   Absence of consignor's declaration on the conformity of the goods and
     their packaging with transport regulations
(3   Vehicles which, on checking, display leaks of dangerous substances due
     to the lack of leaktight integrity of tanks or packages.
(4   Vehicles with no type-approval certificate or with a non-régulâtion
     certificate.
(5   Vehicles lacking the appropriate orange panels or with non-régulâtion
     orange panels.
(6   Vehicles without safety instructions or with inappropriate ones.
(7   Inappropriate vehicle or packaging.
(8   Driver without a regulation vocational training certificate for the
     carriage of dangerous goods by road.
(9   Vehicles lacking fire extinguishers.
(10) Vehicles or packages without regulation danger labels.
(11) Vehicles lacking transport/accompanying documents, or with particulars
     relating to the dangerous goods on board which are not in compliance
     with the regulations.
(12) Vehicles not covered by a bilateral/multilateral agreement or not in
     compliance with the agreement
(13) Overfilling of tank
 ---pagebreak---                                                           ANNEX III(l)
                                Model standard form for the report to be sent to the Commission
                                             concerning infringements and penalties
                            INFRINGEMENTS COMMITTED BY RESIDENT EEC CARRIERS AND PENALTIES APPLIED
STATE :                                                                                                        YEAR:
  Name and address    Registration No    Date of    Place of       Infringements listed in      Penalties
  of undertaking      of vehicles-       report     infringement  Annex II to the Directive2    - applied    COMMENTS
                                                                                                - procedure
                                                                                                in progrèss^
                                                                                                                         « ;
1     To be completed in the case of roadside checks.
2     Indicate the point(s) of Annex II corresponding to the infringement(s) recorded.
3     For cases in which, on the date on which the report is sent to the Commission, a decision has not yet been reached.
 ---pagebreak---                                                          ANNEX 111(2)
                          INFRINGEMENTS COMMITTED BY NON-RESIDENT EEC CARRIERS AND PENALTIES APPLIED
STATE:                                                                                                          YEAR:
   Name and address   Registration No   Date of    Place of       Infringements listed in      Penalties
   of undertaking     of vehicle1        report    infringement   Annex II to the Directive2   - applied      COMMENTS
                                                                                               - procedure
                                                                                               in progress-*
 1     To be completed in the case of roadside checks.
2      Indicate the point(s) of Annex II corresponding to the infringement(s) recorded.
3      For cases in which, on the date on which the report is sent to the Commission, a decision has not yet been reached.
 ---pagebreak---                                                         ANNEX 111(3)
                    INFRINGEMENTS COMMITTED BY CARRIERS FROM A NON-MEMBER COUNTRY AND PENALTIES APPLIED
STATE:                                                                                                        YEAR:
  Name and address   Registration No   Date of   Place of        Infringements listed in     Penalties
  of undertaking     of vehicle1       report    infringement   Annex II to the Directive2   - applied      COMMENTS
                                                                                             - procedure
                                                                                             in progress3
1    To be completed in the case of roadside checks.
2    Indicate the point(s) of Annex II corresponding to the infringement(s) recorded.
3    For cases in which, on the date on which the report is sent to the Commission, a decision has not yet been reached.
 ---pagebreak---                                                          ANNEX 111(4)
          ACTION TAKEN BY THE STATE IN WHICH THE VEHICLES ARE REGISTERED IN RESPONSE TO INFRINGEMENTS COMMITTED BY
                                      ITS OWN NATIONALS RECORDED IN OTHER MEMBER STATES
STATE:                                                                                                         YEAR:
  Name and address    Registration No   Date of    Date and       Infringements listed in     Penalties
  of undertaking      of vehicle1       receipt    place of       Annex II to the Directive2  - applied      COMMENTS
                                        of file    infringement                               - procedure
                                                                                              in progress3
!
                                                 i
                                                 i
1     To be completed in the case of roadside checks.
2     Indicate the point(s) of Annex II corresponding to the infringement(s) recorded.
3     For cases in which, on the date on which the report is sent to the Commission, a decision has not yet been reached.
 ---pagebreak---                                             2 z
                                                                     ISSN 0254-1475
                                                              COM (93) 665 final
                                                      DOCUMENTS
EN                                                                         14 07
                                 Catalogue number : CB-CO-93-726-EN-C
                                                             ISBN 92-77-62896-0
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