What it is
Regulation 1071/2009 sets the four conditions an undertaking must meet to be a road transport operator anywhere in the EU: an effective and stable establishment, good repute, financial standing and professional competence.
Professional competence is held by a transport manager, a named person who passes an exam on the subjects listed in Annex I. That annex is the syllabus of every transport-manager exam in the EU, which is why the corpus on this site follows it.
Where it applies
Every EU member state; the exam and the licence are issued nationally (in Spain, by each autonomous community), on the harmonised conditions. Amended by Regulation 2020/1055 (Mobility Package), which extended it to light vehicles of 2.5 to 3.5 t in international transport.
What to know
- 01Financial standing: capital and reserves of at least €9,000 for the first vehicle and €5,000 for each additional vehicle over 3.5 t; €1,800 and €900 for light vehicles between 2.5 and 3.5 t (art. 7).
- 02The transport manager must be a natural person, of good repute, holding the certificate of professional competence, and genuinely managing the transport activity (art. 4).
- 03An external transport manager may manage at most four undertakings with a combined fleet of at most fifty vehicles (art. 4.2).
- 04Annex I fixes the eight examined subjects: civil law, commercial law, social law, fiscal law, business and financial management, access to the market, technical standards and operation, and road safety.
- 05Good repute is lost after serious infringements listed in Annex IV; the manager can be declared unfit.
- 06Spain adds a national layer: the freight forwarder (operador de transporte) has its own financial standing requirement of €60,000, distinct from the haulier’s.
Who needs to know it
- Anyone who wants to run a haulage company, or to be its transport manager.
- Candidates for the transport-manager exam, which examines Annex I.
- Forwarders in Spain, who need the operador de transporte authorisation.
An informative summary, not legal advice. Always check the current text of the rule before deciding.