Declare you’re transporting goods inside the EU
Make a ‘posting declaration’ when your drivers use HGVs, vans or trailers to transport goods between 2 points in the EU.
As a UK operator, before your drivers transport goods between 2 points in the EU for commercial purposes, you must declare the details on an EU portal.
Declaring the details is known as making a posting declaration.
There are no fees to make a posting declaration.
If you’re an EU operator, you must follow the same rules if you transport goods between 2 points in the EU and the UK for commercial purposes. You must also follow UK drivers’ hours rules and UK minimum wage rules when doing these jobs in the UK.
Types of journeys you must declare
You must declare:
- cabotage jobs (loading goods in one of these countries and unloading them at another point in the same country using a UK-registered vehicle)
- cross-trade jobs (loading goods in one of these countries and unloading them in another of these countries using a UK-registered vehicle)
- moving goods for your own business’ use inside these countries, including if your business is not mainly about moving goods
Find out how many cabotage and cross-trade jobs you’re allowed to do.
You must make a declaration when you use any of these vehicles to transport the goods:
- heavy goods vehicles (HGVs)
- HGVs towing trailers
- vans of any size or other light goods vehicles (sometimes called ‘light commercial vehicles’)
- vans towing trailers
- cars towing trailers
Journeys inside Ireland
You need to declare journeys inside Ireland if they’re covered by the rules. This includes if you’re a Northern Ireland vehicle operator.
What you do not need to declare
You do not need to declare when your drivers are using an empty vehicle.
You also do not need to declare when your driver is transporting goods:
- from the UK to one place in Europe, where you can both unload and load goods
- from the UK to Europe, and you unload goods at more than one place in Europe (but you cannot load goods in Europe)
- from Europe to the UK, and you load goods at more than one place in Europe (but you cannot unload goods in Europe)
- from the UK to a non-European country (but you cannot load or unload the goods while you’re in Europe)
Create an account on the EU portal
You need to create an account for your company on the EU portal before you can declare a journey.
When you’ve created your company account, you can invite other people from your company to have access.
To create an account, you need information about your:
- company
- transport manager
- drivers
Company information
To create your account, you need your company’s:
- name
- address
- country of registration
- email address
- VAT number
- registration number
- UK Licence for the Community number
Transport manager information
To create your account, you need your transport manager’s:
- name
- office address
- email address
- telephone number
- CPC certificate number
Driver information
To create your account, you need this information for each of your drivers who drive in Europe:
- full name
- date of birth
- email address
- home address
- driving licence number
- driver card number
- internal reference number (for example, their employee number)
- ID document (for example, a passport) - you’ll need the document number, the issue date, the expiry date, and which country issued it
- start date of the drivers’ employment contract with you
- applicable law (which country’s law they’re employed under)
If you have lots of drivers, you can upload their details in a spreadsheet. When you’ve signed in, select the Driver menu, and then Upload driver(s). You can then download a spreadsheet template to use and upload.
If you get an ‘Access Denied’ error message
You might get an ‘Access Denied’ error message at times. This can happen if you:
- select ‘Go to my account’ but have not registered on the portal - you need to create a company account or be invited to join one
- were in the process of creating a new company account - select ‘Reload application’ and then ‘Create account’ - the company creation process will then resume
- have been invited by email and signed in with an EU login account - you need to restart the invitation process from the link you were sent in the invitation email - the registration process will then resume
Declare your journeys (make a posting declaration)
You must make a separate posting declaration for each country each driver will transport goods in.
You can choose to either:
- make a posting declaration for each individual journey a driver makes in each country
- make a posting declaration of up to 6 months for a driver to cover all journeys they’ll make in each country during that time
When you’ve made a posting declaration for one country, you can copy that declaration and change the country (if all the other information is the same).
You need:
- the start and end dates of the posting (this can be up to 6 months long)
- the type of operation - you can select cabotage, international carriage (cross-trade) or both (select both if there’s a chance of short notice cabotage jobs - it does not matter if you actually do not end up doing any)
- the vehicle registration (number plates) of the vehicles you’re using (you can add more than one if your driver will be driving multiple vehicles)
- contact details for your transport manager or another contact person in the UK (so European countries can ask for further documents)
You will get penalties if you do not make a declaration.
Documents your driver needs to carry
Your driver must carry a digital or physical copy of the information you declare for the journey.
Your driver will get penalties from the enforcement authorities in the European countries they’re stopped in if they do not have a copy.
Your driver also still needs all of the usual:
- vehicle and trailer documents
- driver documents - including tachograph records
- export documents - including an electronic consignment note (e-CMR) or a paper CMR
Respond to requests from other countries for copies of documents
Enforcement authorities in EU countries can ask you (as the operator) for:
- copies of the documents that drivers have to carry
- documents about the driver’s pay during the journey, their employment contract and timesheets for their work
You must upload the information you’re asked to the EU portal within 8 weeks of being asked for it.
The Traffic Commissioners for Great Britain or the Transport Regulation Unit in Northern Ireland will be able to take action against you if you do not upload the information.
More information
Check the EU postings portal help section for more information.