Cabotage

Cabotage is a haulier from one country carrying goods between two points inside another country. In the EU it is allowed only after an international delivery into that country: up to three cabotage operations within seven days, then a four-day cooling-off before more cabotage there with the same vehicle. The UK and Saudi Arabia set their own rules.

The EU rules

• After an international carriage into a member state, a haulier may make up to three cabotage operations, the last unloading within 7 days of the international unloading.
• Then the same vehicle may not do cabotage in that member state for 4 days — counted in calendar days, separately for each member state. These rules apply from 21 February 2022.
• A driver doing cabotage counts as a posted worker, declared through the EU's posting portal.
• Consignors and freight forwarders can be sanctioned if they knew, or ought to have known, that the transport they bought broke the rules.
• The EU Court of Justice annulled the rule that would have made vehicles return to their operational centre every eight weeks.

Outside the EU

The UK sets its own limits: EU operators in Great Britain may make 2 cabotage movements within 7 days, with no cooling-off period, and UK hauliers in the EU may do up to 2 jobs inside the bloc, only one of them cabotage. In Saudi Arabia, reported rules restrict foreign trucks to carrying goods from abroad to designated delivery points, and bar traders and factories from contracting non-Saudi vehicles for domestic loads.

Worked example: a week of cabotage

A truck registered in Poland unloads an international load in Germany on 3 March.

The mistake people make

Assuming cabotage compliance is only the haulier's problem. Under the 2020 amendments, a shipper or forwarder who knew, or should have known, that a booked truck was over its cabotage limit can be penalised too.