New rules introducing the co-responsibility of clients of transport operation in verifying the fulfilment of provisions concerning salary, labour taxation and social security payments have been passed by the Italian Parliament within the 2015 Italian Budget Law (Legge di Stabilità 2015, l. 23 December 2014, n. 190).
These new legislative terms aim to reduce infringements of road cabotage provisions ruled by EU Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009. They also address the need to make the different actors involved in the road haulage transport chain, responsible for respecting the law. This was one of the issues Steer Davies Gleave highlighted in a study undertaken on behalf of the European Parliament on the Development and Implementation of EU Road Cabotage.
The study indicated the presence of significant differences across the European Union on the extent to which clients of road haulage operations are co-responsible for potential infringements by cabotage operators. The report also pointed towards the introduction of a system of shared-responsibilities between clients and operators across the EU.
The recent rules on co-responsibility passed by the Italian Parliament reflect the ideas expressed in SDG’s study on the topic. These rules are part of a wider set of provisions that aim to deregulate the Italian road haulage transport market that have generated an extensive debate across Italian operators and their associations.