Mobility Package – a revolution in road transport

The amendment to the Act on Road Transport, Drivers’ Working Time, and Certain Other Acts was signed by the President on 27 January 2022. The document was published in the Journal of Laws the following day. A driver performing international road transport will no longer be considered as being on a business trip. This element of the amendment has been in force since 2 February 2022. The change does not apply to drivers performing domestic transport. Other new provisions are to come into effect one month after their publication in the Journal of Laws. The changes aim to align Polish law with EU regulations regarding the so-called Mobility Package, which concerns the obligation to register drivers in other countries and modifies the rules for calculating equalisation payments to foreign wages. Below is an overview of both the already effective and upcoming regulatory changes.

Driver Working Time Records

The new regulations introduce the requirement to maintain a detailed record of drivers’ working time, specifying elements based on data from driver cards and tachographs.

The records must include the number of hours worked, start and end times of work, hours worked at night, overtime hours, days off with an indication of the reason for granting them, on-call hours and start and end times of on-call duty specifying whether it is performed at home, the type and extent of authorised absences, the type and extent of other justified absences, and the extent of unjustified absences, taking into account:

1. entries on analogue tachograph charts,
2. data printouts from driver cards and digital tachographs,
3. files downloaded from driver cards and digital tachographs,
4.other documents confirming working time and the type of activities performed, or
5. registers prepared based on the documents referred to in points 1–3.
The records must be kept in written or electronic form, made available to the driver upon request, and retained for 10 years after the end of the period they cover.

Working Time at Night

The rules for calculating night-time working hours limits have been changed. The amendment introduces a new method of calculation: time worked will no longer be counted within a 24-hour day but instead between rest periods (daily or daily and weekly).

Other Changes

According to information from the government website:

• From 20 May 2022, the Mobility Package regulations will impose obligations on entrepreneurs performing road transport of goods using vehicles with a permissible total weight exceeding 2.5 tonnes and not exceeding 3.5 tonnes, concerning access to the profession of road carrier in international goods transport. Performing such transport will require the carrier to hold a permit to conduct the profession of road carrier and a community licence.
• Provisions regarding access to the profession of road carrier have been clarified. This includes requirements related to the carrier’s registered office, where originals of documents connected to the main transport activity conducted by the entrepreneur must be accessible. There will also be a new obligation to maintain accounting books on Polish territory.
• The catalogue of breaches of law that disqualify an entrepreneur or transport manager from meeting the requirements of good repute has been extended.
• Provisions regarding cabotage operations within the European Union have been clarified, including rules for performing and controlling such transport activities in Poland.

The bill’s authors declare that the above changes will ensure increased effectiveness of supervision over the transport services market in Poland, reduce unfair competition between carriers, and better protect the domestic transport market.