From today, legal requirements for road transport in France change. The scope of the obligations of both the client and the contractor increases regarding transport services carried out by the subcontractor.
Decree 2019-695 of July 1, 2019 is about the standard contracts for public road transport carried out by subcontractors. Both the principal and the contractor has new obligations. These new regulations were proposed by transport associations and state transport and labour departments. Their goal is to combat unfair competition, undeclared work and the so-called social dumping in this transport sector.
Requirements for contracts with subcontractors are set out in the „Transport Code”. According to them, the obligations of the client and the client’s contractor must be specified in writing. However, if such a contract has not been made, according to French law, the relationship between the two parties corresponds to those contained in the statutory standard contract – reports the transport portal verkehrsrundschau.de. The new decree introduces some changes to it.
New duties
According to verkehrsrundschau.de, the new contract model helps subcontractors with the freely negotiated price and provides them with fair payment for services rendered. However, transactions on the spot market (where orders are processed on the second business day at the latest) are excluded from the record.
The new regulations oblige the contractor to submit a photocopy of the current transport license in his name before concluding the contract – it comes from article 3 of the mentioned decree. This is to be a license issued in France or another EU country.
For services whose pre-tax value is min. 5,000 euro, the French client also has a new obligation. Upon conclusion of the contract and until its expiry, he must check the contractor every six months for compliance with the provisions of the Labor Code aimed at combating undeclared work. Therefore, a subcontractor from abroad must provide, among others:
– an extract from the commercial register certifying company registration every six months,
– intra-Community identification number, every six months
– certificate A1,
– if employing foreign employees, a list of names of employees from abroad employed by a subcontractor and work permit (if the subcontractor does not employ foreign employees – he must also submit a relevant certificate) every six months,
– a copy of the posting certificate for each posted driver.
Subcontractors who are not resident in France should send documents in French or translate these papers into French.
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