Under the proposal, any attempt to impose such duties through employment contracts, transport contracts, internal instructions, or customer or intermediary requests would be unlawful, except in certain types of specialised transport.
The draft law states that the loading and unloading of transported goods should be carried out by the beneficiary of the transport, the supplier/shipper, or intermediaries, as applicable, and in line with workplace health and safety rules.
The ban would not apply to specialised transport where loading/unloading is considered inherent to the service. The text explicitly lists examples, including bulk transport, fuel transport, vehicle transporters, and live animal transport.
Any contractual clause or internal provision that obliges drivers to load or unload goods outside the permitted exceptions would be null and void under the draft.
Fines and enforcement
Breaches would be treated as an administrative offence, punishable by a fine of 10,000 to 30,000 lei (approx €1,962–€5,886), to be applied to the responsible party (which may include the carrier, the transport customer/beneficiary, the shipper/supplier or intermediaries, depending on the case).
Enforcement would sit with Romania’s Labour Inspectorate (Inspecția Muncii), which would have the power to request documents and carry out checks at both company premises and loading/unloading locations.
When could it take effect?
If it becomes law, it would enter into force 30 days after publication in Romania’s Official Gazette (Monitorul Oficial). The labour ministry would then have 90 days to issue implementing rules.
The document notes that the bill is considered adopted by the Senate in its initial form under Article 75(2) of Romania’s Constitution (a procedure used when the Senate’s decision deadline is reached).
Hefty fines for making HGV drivers load in Spain and Portugal
Portugal has already moved to restrict driver involvement in loading and unloading. A decree-law adopted in July 2021 and effective from mid-September 2021 placed primary responsibility for loading and unloading on the shipper/consignor or recipient/consignee, who must use trained staff. Where these operations are the carrier’s responsibility, the work should be carried out by a qualified worker other than the driver.
The same framework limits the maximum waiting time for loading or unloading to two hours (counted from the agreed appointment time, or from the vehicle’s registration in the shipper/recipient system where no appointment exists, with specific exceptions), and provides for compensation for delays payable by the party responsible.
Drivers can still be involved in a limited set of cases, including certain distribution operations (with conditions), removals and door-to-door transport, and—depending on training and equipment—for specific categories such as fuel, bulk and car carriers, as well as dangerous goods. Fines for non-compliance can reach €15,000, according to industry reports.
Spain has also implemented a ban on truck drivers’ participation in loading and unloading activities, effective 2 September 2022.
The rules mean that in the overwhelming majority of cases, drivers of vehicles over 7.5 tons are not allowed to conduct loading or unloading operations. A few exceptions do apply in specific situations, such as in livestock transport, removals, when packages are very small, tanks are being unloaded, or a tipper truck is used.
Apart from the loading ban, the regulation also states that the haulier has to be paid compensation by the shipper after waiting for an hour to get loaded or unloaded (until now, hauliers had to be compensated after waiting for 2 hours). Companies who flout the rules by expecting drivers to load or unload can be fined up to €4,600.
France has also explored the idea. In 2023, OTRE asked the government to make loading/unloading rules mandatory and to move responsibility to consignors/consignees in many cases, alongside tougher rules on waiting times and compensation; the transport ministry launched studies, but the process stopped short of producing binding national rules.
