On 10 March 2022, Advocate General Emiliou handed down his Conclusions in Case C‑13/21, Pricoforest SRL v Inspectoratul de Stat pentru Controlul în Transportul Rutier (ISCTR), on the interpretation of Article 13(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006. The request has been brought in proceedings between Pricoforest SRL (“Pricoforest”), a forestry undertaking, and the Inspectoratul de Stat pentru Controlul în Transportul Rutier (State Inspectorate for Road Transport Control, Romania; “ISCTR”) concerning a fine imposed by the latter on the former for allegedly breaching, in the course of several road transport operations, the rules on driving time, breaks and rest periods set out in Regulation No 561/2006.

Following the checks carried out by an inspection team of the ISCTR in the town of Bălan, located 130 km away from Pricoforest’s place of business, it was found that, between 5.15 on 17 August 2020 and 19.23 on 18 August 2020, the driver of a motor vehicle towing a trailer, used by Pricoforest for carrying timber, exceeded the maximum daily driving time provided for by Regulation No 561/2006 and completed a period of daily rest lower than the minimum required by the regulation. Having been fined for both offences, Pricoforest brought an action before the Judecătoria Miercurea Ciuc (Court of First Instance, Miercurea-Ciuc; the “referring court”) which, in light of the need to interpret the relevant European legislation, decided to stay the proceedings and to refer to the Court of Justice two questions for a preliminary ruling.

By its first question, the referring court asked whether the concept of ‘radius of up to 100 km from the base of the undertaking’ within the meaning of Article 13(1)(b) of Regulation No 561/2006 is to be interpreted as meaning that a straight line drawn on a map between the base of the undertaking and the destination of the vehicle must be less than 100 km, or that the distance actually travelled by the vehicle on road must be less than 100 km.

According to the AG, the concept of “radius of up to 100 km from the base of the undertaking” within the meaning of Article 13(1)(b) of Regulation No 561/2006 can only refer not to the distance travelled by the vehicle by road, but to a 100 km straight line, drawn on the map from that base to any point along the edge an imaginary circle around it, thereby referring to a geographical area, delimited by that circle, within which the carriage of goods has to be carried out.

By its second question, the referring court asked whether Article 13(1)(b) of Regulation No 561/2006 is to be interpreted as meaning that, where a forestry undertaking routinely conducts, using the same vehicles, transport operations within a radius of 100 km from its base, and transport operations which range beyond that radius, (a) all those transport operations, (b) only those which do not exceed that radius, or (c) none of them are exempt, pursuant to that provision, from the application of the general rules set out in that regulation.

According to the AG, where a vehicle is routinely used by a forestry undertaking both for carrying goods as part of its own entrepreneurial activity within a radius of up to 100 km from its base, and for transport operations that do not fulfil those conditions, only the first category of carriage operations can be exempted from the rules on driving time, breaks and rest periods set out in Regulation No 561/2006.

Marco Stillo