European Council relaxes restriction on hiring foreign-registered vehicles within the EU
By Bradley Osborne - 20th December 2021
Europe – The European Council (EC), the strategic body composed of the heads of state of the European Union (EU), has approved a series of reforms to Directive 2006/1/EC regarding the use of hired vehicles which, when put into force, will remove the majority of restrictions which hinder or prevent operators from hiring vehicles registered in a foreign EU member state.
The directive specifically concerns the use of vehicles hired without drivers for the carriage of goods by road, “vehicles” being defined as those which have a total permissible laden weight of more than six tonnes for own-account transport operations. The reforms were originally tabled in 2017 and given final approval by the EC on 20 December 2021. They must be passed by the European Parliament before they enter into law. Following parliamentary approval, EU member states will need to incorporate the new provisions into their respective legislations within 14 months.
