The keys of the Transport Inspection Plan for 2023

The National Road Transport Inspection Plan for 2023 has been presented to national transport associations and approved on November 21, 2022.

This plan has been elaborated by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA) with the Civil Guard Traffic Group, the National Road Transport Committee (CNTC), the Autonomous Communities and other bodies competent in road transport.

Goals of the Transport Inspection Plan

The general subdirector of the Land Transport Inspection of the Ministry of Transport states that the main objectives of this plan are to ensure the rights of transporters and compliance with the rules. The Transport Inspection Plan has as a finality to ensure a minimum rentability of the work and that the subcontracting is used in a fair way. Also, it takes part of the advance to the economic sustainability of freight transport.

It has a special emphasis on the morosity control, transport prices, the prohibition to load and unload and the control of mailbox companies.

News of the Transport Inspection Plan

With the goal to guarantee that the prices of the transport cover the costs, the inspection services will analyse the CMRs and other contractual documents, so they can check if all of the details are correct and that the price is justified.

The Transport Inspection Plan incises on the control of the transport prices, looking for respecting the maximum agreed prices.

The fight against morosity in freight transport has a heavy weight in this plan, since it has a negative repercussion on the competitivity and rentability. The news in this field looks for a fair competitivity and rentability.

To fight against the fraud in contracting workers, the control of dislocation of companies on the UE has increased.

It is fomented the use of the complaint mail, between a series of online inspection and control tools. This way makes it easy for every user, simple and anonymous to post a violation against the rules. You can access this mail from the web of the Ministry of Transport.

Controls and sanctions of the Transport Inspection Plan

The Transport Inspection Plan endures the controls and the sanctions.

They will be done estate inspections and autonomic inspections. Even more on this type of controls:

• In loading and unloading, to comply with Royal Decree Law 3/2022 of 1 March and Royal Decree Law 14/2022 of September 2022. These establish that drivers must not participate in the loading and unloading of goods. These controls will be carried out in person by Transport inspectors.
• In large loading companies and logistics centres. Both in Spain and in other EU countries.
• In mailbox companies, which together with delocalised companies often exercise unfair competition. Following the actions set out in the Strategic Plan of the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate.
• In the hiring of workers. The Transport Inspectorate and the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate are working together to prevent fraud in the hiring of workers. Likewise, the aim is to eradicate the fact that the self-employed in the sector sometimes have to work at a loss.
• On driving and rest times. Tachographs are analysed to check that drivers' rest periods are respected and that overtime is not being worked.
• At the busiest points, so that controls are more effective. Ports, industrial estates, logistics centres, bus and train stations, large loaders, etc.

If anomalies are detected during these inspections, the penalties can be up to 4,000 euros, depending on the penalty.

The Road Transport Inspection Plan is related to and complements some points of the Transport Chain Act. This was approved by the National Committee a few months ago.

Combating late payments, monitoring unfair competition, controlling fraudulent contracts and ensuring compliance with driving and rest times are the key points of this plan. It serves to support and complete some of the measures that had been approved in previous legislation and to improve the situation of hauliers.