EU's Mobility Package will be applicable from 1st February 2022

The mobility package is divided into three “sub-packages” and parts have already taken in place since 2020, but the main part (two) will be applicable from 1st February 2022

• Change in working-hour regulations for drivers
• Salaries for drivers for cabotage and third-country driving shall be at the level of the country where the transport is made
• Stricter rules for cabotage
• Manual registration of all trucks passing borders in Europe
• Obligation to return trucks to the company’s headquarters every eight week
• Return of the drivers to the country of origin will be mandatory every fourth weeks
• Introduction of a permit and tachograph in vans
• Tightening of the rules for companies with activity in one country and a postbox in another EU country

Expected side effects for all rules:

• Europe already have a huge driver shortage and expected is that this will increase due to a lower productivity of current drivers when the trucks need to go home to their HQ every eight weeks
• Trucking companies operating in Western Europe, it will be more interesting to have a base in West or Central Europe rather than in the Baltic countries or South East of Europe.  
• CO2 emissions will increase due to more empty mileage 
• Higher costs
• Lack of capacity 
• More administrations
• How will this affect our customers?
• Lower productivity will push the capacity in the market further. 
• Increase freight costs and give longer transit-times

The purpose of the Mobility Package is to regulate truck drivers’ work and rest regimes as well as to provide equal access to the profession and local markets. Due to the new regulations, an international truck driver will be entitled to do better business trip compensation, especially when market wages in the country where they work are higher than their origin country.

We will keep you posted of our assessment of continued market development.

For more facts and development, IRU - The European Commission’s Mobility Package (irumobilitypackages.org)