CELEX: 31971D0301
Language: en
Date: 1971-07-28 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 28 July 1971 on a dispute between France and the Netherlands on the fixing of tariff rates for the carriage of goods by road between the two countries in implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1174/68

56                                 Official Journal of the European Communities
 12.8.71                             Official Journal of the European Communities                             No L 182/ 17
                                              COMMISSION DECISION
                                                    of 28 July 1971
               on a dispute between France and the Netherlands on the fixing of tariff rates for the
               carriage of goods by road between the two countries in implementation of Council
                                            Regulation (EEC) No 1174/68
                                     (Only the French and Dutch texts are authentic)
                                                     (7 1 /301 /EEC)
 THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                   cular by the cost of the corresponding transport oper­
 COMMUNITIES,                                                     ations effected by Netherlands carriers;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Euro­                Whereas France, on the other hand, considers that
pean Economic Community;                                          the rates proposed by the carriers are too high, that
                                                                  the differentiation of the rates by tariff classes is
Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No                      excessive and that, for the rates to be in line with
 1174/681 of 30 July 1968 on the introduction of a                Article 3 of Regulation (EEC) No 1174/ 68, they
system of bracket tariffs for the carriage of goods by            should be reduced by 25 % for up to 125 km, by a
road between Member States, and in particular Ar­                 percentage decreasing gradually from 25 to 8 % for
ticles 2 to 4 thereof;                                            distances of from 126 to 200 km and by 8 % for
                                                                  distances of 201 km and over, and that the rates for
Whereas France, by letter of 24 May 1971 from the                 tariff class I should be fixed at 110 % and those of
Office of its Permanent Representative, and the                   tariff class IV at 85 % of the rates for tariff class II ;
Netherlands, by letter of 23 June 1971 , from the Of­
fice of its Permanent Representative, referred to the             Whereas France is of the opinion that, in this con­
Commission, pursuant to Article 4 (2) (b) of; Regu­               nection, the cost increase, on which the carriers based
lation (EEC) No 1174/68, the dispute which has                    their 1970 proposal, exceed for French carriers, when
arisen between those countries on certain aspects of              compared with a tariff proposed by the latter in
the tariff in respect of road transport between                   1967, the cost increases which have actually occurred
France and the Netherlands;                                       since then; whereas the return on which the carriers
                                                                  base their calculation is excessive having regard to
Whereas at the meeting with the representatives of                the concept of 'fair returns' within the meaning of
the Commission on 21 June 1971 , the representatives              the second subparagraph of Article 3 ( 1 ) of the said
of the two Member States notified the Commission,                 Regulation; whereas the carriers' cost calculations do
in accordance with Article 4 (2 (a) of the said Regu­             not take account of the need for only one driver for
lation, of their agreement on all aspects of that tariff          short hauls and whereas the variations in the dif­
which are not the subject of the dispute which has                ferentiation of rates by tariff classes appear to exag­
been referred to the Commission;                                  gerate the differential cost of transport ;
Whereas the dispute relates to the general level of             - Whereas, pursuant to Article 3 of Regulation (EEC)
the tariff rates and to the differentiation of the rates          No 1174/68 'each tariff shall be drawn up by refer­
by tariff classes of goods ;                                      ence to a base-rate, which shall be the middle point
                                                                  of the bracket', the bracket spread being 23 % of the
Whereas the Netherlands considers that rates pro­                 maximum rate; whereas 'the base-rate shall be fixed
posed jointly by French and Netherlands carriers for              having regard both to the average cost of the trans­
the different tariff classes, in the proposal published           port operation concerned, including the general ex­
in the Journal Ojficiel de la Republique francaise of             penses of the business, for a properly managed un­
25 November 1970, are justified, having regard to                 dertaking enjoying normal conditions of use of its
Article 3 of Regulation (EEC) No 1174/68, in parti­               carrying capacity, and to market conditions and shall
                                                                  be such as to provide a fair return for carriers';
1 OJ No L 194, 6.8.1968, p. 1 .                                  whereas 'tariffs may vary according to the circum­
 ---pagebreak---                                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                    57
  stances of the service provided and in particular ac­        posal by the French and Netherlands carriers pub­
  cording to the technical and economic characteristics         lished in the Journal Officiel de la Republique fran­
  of the operation in question, the route concerned, the       gaise of 25 November 1970, less :
  length of the transit period, the tonnage conditions         - 11-5 % for distances of 121 to 130 km :
  and the type of goods carried';                              -      2% for distances of 291 to 300 km;
                                                               -      0 % for distances of 441 to 460 km;
  Whereas, as regards the level of the rates,                  -    4-5 % for distances of 781 to 800 km;
  - in fixing the base-rates of the tariffs, account must      -    5-5 % for distances of 1151 to 1200 km and above.
     be taken of the average cost of the corresponding
     transport operation effected by French and Nether­         For distances between those shown in the first sub­
     lands carriers;                                           paragraph, the rate shall be reckoned by linear pro­
' - the percentage increase since 1967, mentioned^by            gression.
     France, has reference to transport costs and not to
                                                                                       Article 2
     the tariff proposed by the carriers in 1967, the '
     relationship of which to those costs was not that          The rates for consignments of goods falling within
     provided for in Regulation (EEC) No 1174/68;               tariff class I shall be those for tariff class II, plus
                                                                 12-5 % .
  - for determining vehicle crew costs, account must
     be taken of the provisions of Council Regulation
     (EEC) No 543/691 of 23 March 1969 on the har­              The rates for consignments of goods falling within
                                                                tariff classes III and IV shall be those for class II,
     monization of certain social legislation relating to
     road transport;
                                                                less 7-5 % and 17-5 % respectively.
  - the average profit margin taken for calculation of                                 Article 3
     the rates should correspond to what is customary           The rates for other tonnage conditions shall be those
     in that sector;
                                                                for the 20 metric tons conditions plus:
  Whereas, having regard to the provisions of Article 3         - 7-5 % for the 15 metric tons condition;
  of Regulation (EEC) No 1174/ 68 , account should be           - 26-5 % for the 10 metric tons condition;
  taken, in the differentiation of the rates by tariff          - 50 % for the 7 metric tons condition;
  classes of the criteria employed for the breakdown of         - 76 % for the 5 metric tons condition .
  goods between tariff classes;
                                                                                       Article 4
  Whereas the rate differentials for tonnage conditions         This Decision is addressed to the French Republic
  other than 20 metric tons, should take account, in
                                                                and to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It shall be
  particular, of the actual conditions of carriage of con­      communicated to the other Member States .
  signments in the different categories of vehicles ;
                                                                                       Article 5
  After consulting the Committee of Experts set up by
  Article 11 of Regulation (EEC) No 1174/68,                    This Decision shall become effective after a period of
                                                                20 days from its notification, unless a Member State
  HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :                                   refers the matter to the Council.
                          Article 1                             Done at Brussels, 28 July 1971 .
  For consignments in the 20 metric tons conditions of                            For the Commission
  goods falling within tariff class II , the upper limit
  of the bracket tariff for transport between France                                 The President
  and the Netherlands shall be that set out in the pro­                          Franco M. MALFATTI
  1 OJ No L 77,293.1969, p. 49.