Drivers of HGVs and commercial vans must now make a 'posting declaration' when transporting goods between two points in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
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
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
To make your declaration, visit the EU Posting Declaration website and create an account.
There are no fees to make a posting declaration, however penalties apply if you do not make a declaration.
Visit the Posting Declaration Gov.uk guidance page for more information.