by Catalonia: another day with HGV traffic restrictions
The Catalan Road Traffic Service (SCT) has published an announcement regarding driving restriction for vehicles and vehicle combinations over 7,500 kg GVW that are in effect on the AP-7 motorway on Sunday 24 April.
Following the termination of the concession agreement for the construction, operation and maintenance of some motorways and the abolition of tolls, the volume traffic, especially on the AP-7 highway, has increased considerably, resulting a series of road accidents, especially at weekends. For this reason, SCT has decided to open additional lanes in the opposite direction, which means that heavy goods vehicles can only travel safely on the right-hand lane. Consequently, all vehicles with a GVW exceeding 7500 kg are now obliged to use the right lane of the motorway and are not allowed to overtake and drive faster than 80 km/h during certain hours on specified days.
The restriction applies:
– on the section of the AP-7 motorway between KP 158 in Sant Cugat del Vallès and KP 213 in Banyeres del Penedès
– on the section of the B-23 motorway between KP 8, in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, and the intersection with AP-7 in Papiol on Sunday, April 24 between 3:00 PM and 10:00 PM.
by UK: Termination of the temporary relaxation of the enforcement of the retained EU drivers’ hours rules
The Department for Transport (DfT) announced a temporary relaxation of drivers’ hours rules in England, Scotland and Wales from 9 April 2022 until 8 May 2022. In light of the improvement of the situation, DfT terminated the relaxation early at 11:59pm on 22 April 2022.
The temporary relaxation was introduced in response to the exceptional pressures on the freight industry. More on that in the article entitled Traffic gridlock across Dover.
Scope of the relaxation
For the drivers in question, the enforcement of the rules was temporarily relaxed as follows from 12:01am on 9 April 2022:
a) replacement of the EU daily driving limit of 9 hours with one of 11 hours
b) reduction of the daily rest requirements from 11 to 9 hours, together with a relaxation on the use of the ferry/train derogation to allow its use when on a reduced daily rest of 9 hours (instead of when on a regular rest period of 11 hours)
c) lifting the weekly (56 hours) and fortnightly driving limits (90 hours) to 60 and 96 hours respectively
d) postponement of the requirement to start a weekly rest period after 6 x 24-hour periods, which was temporarily replaced with a requirement to start the weekly rest period after 7 x 24-hour periods, although 2 regular weekly rest periods or a regular and a reduced weekly rest period will still be required within a fortnight
For weekly and fortnightly driving limits for periods across the end of the relaxation, the higher limits are applicable only if they are required by driving done up to 22 April 2022. For example, a driver who has increased their daily driving limit to 11 hours twice under the relaxations can increase both their weekly and fortnightly driving limits by a total of 4 hours.
Those who have made use of the relaxation (except for international transport and transport between Great Britain and Northern Ireland) should send a completed follow-up notification of relaxation form within 7 days of the relaxation ending and no later than 29 April 2022 to [email protected].
gov.uk
by Belarus: Clarifications on transhipment paperwork for EU registered carriers Goods
This info updates an earlier post on the Belarus ban on EU registered operators entering Belarus, except to unload or unhook at 14 designated transshipment areas close to the border.
List of transhipment points in Belarus connected with the ban on the movement of EU vehicles
When performing international transportation, information about the transshipment (unloading/unhooking), successive carrier, registration numbers of the successive vehicle, as well as the place of the specified cargo operations should be indicated in the transit declaration. The transit declaration should be submitted to the Belarusian customs clearance offices located at the place of arrival in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) customs territory in Belarus.
In case the EU carrier does not have information about the transshipment when arriving to the EAEU customs territory in Belarus, the relevant information must be indicated by the successive carrier before the goods are placed under the customs transit procedure at the place of transhipment (unloading/unhooking).
The following information should be indicated:
✅Column 17 of the CMR consignment note – Successive carrier (name, address, country);
✅ Column 25 of the CMR consignment note (or another column intended for these purposes) – registration number of the vehicle being used to continue transportation.
In the case of goods transshipment, this information should additionally be indicated in column 13 of the CMR consignment note (“Sender’s instruction”).
In cases when a tractor or an empty vehicle registered in the EU enters Belarus to the designated places to pick up goods for export, the carriers are recommended to have an order form or agreement to confirm the purpose of the vehicle’s entry into Belarusian territory.
IRU