S.L. 65.19 Art. 2Interpretation.

In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires:

''AETR'' means the European Agreement concerning the Work of

Crews of Vehicles engaged in International Road Transport;

''authorisation'' means any permission given by a recognised competent authority entitling the holder to carry out road haulage operations;

''authorised inspecting officer'' means an officer appointed by the Authority to carry out inspections under these regulations, an officer of the Customs Department, or a Police Officer or a community officer;

''Authority'' means the Authority for Transport in Malta as established by the Authority for Transport in Malta Act;

''break'' means any period during which a driver may not carry out any driving or any other work and which is used exclusively for recuperation; ''cabotage transport operations'' means the performing of national road haulage operations for hire or reward within Malta by a non-resident haulier who holds a Community authorization; such activity shall not be permanent, frequent, regular or continuous, shall not be carried out systematically, shall be at considerable and infrequent intervals, and the vehicle involved shall leave the country at least once a month;

''carriage by road'' means any journey made entirely or in part on roads open to the public by a vehicle, whether laden or not, used for the carriage of goods; ''collective agreement'' means an agreement entered into between an employer, or one or more organisations of employers, and one or more organisations of employees regarding conditions of employment in accordance with the provisions of any law in force in Malta; ''combined transport'' means the transport of goods between Member States where the vehicle uses the public highway on the initial or final leg of the journey and, on the other leg uses rail, inland waterway or maritime services, or a combination of two or more modes of transport, where these portions of the journey exceed 100 km in a straight line, and the vehicle makes the initial or final leg of the journey on the public highway within a radius not exceeding 150 km in a straight line from the inland waterway port or seaport of loading or unloading; "Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/480" means Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/480 of 1 April 2016 establishing common rules concerning the interconnection of national electronic registers on road transport undertakings and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1213/2010; ''Community authorisation'' means a licence issued by the competent authorities of a Member State to a haulier established in that Member State in accordance with Articles 5 and 7 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 881/92 on access to the market in the carriage of goods by road within the Community to or from the territory of a Member State or passing across the territory of one or more Member States;

''Commissioner'' means the Commissioner of Police; ''company'' has the same meaning as is assigned to it in article 2 of the Companies Act; ''cooperative society'' means a cooperative society registered or provisionally registered under the Cooperative Societies Act; ''country of establishment'' means that country in which the non-resident haulier is established and registered; ''daily driving time'' means the total accumulated driving time between the end of one daily rest period and the beginning of the following daily rest period or between a daily rest period and a weekly rest period; ''daily rest period'' means the daily period during which a driver may freely dispose of his time and covers a ''regular daily rest period'' and a ''reduced daily rest period'' as defined under these regulations;

"Directive 2002/15/EC" means Directive 2002/15/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2002 on the organisation of the working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities; "Directive 2006/1/EC" means Directive 2006/1/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 January 2006 on the use of vehicles hired without drivers for the carriage of goods by road;

''Directive 2006/22/EC'' means Directive 2006/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on minimum conditions for the implementation of Regulations (EC) No 561/2006 and (EU) No 165/2014 and Directive 2002/15/EC as regards social legislation relating to road transport activities, and repealing Council Directive 88/599/EEC, as amended by Directive (EU) 2024/ 846; "Directive 92/106/EEC" means Council Directive 92/106/EEC of 7 December 1992 on the establishment of common rules for certain types of combined transport of goods between Member States; "Directive (EU) 2015/719" means Directive (EU) 2015/719 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2015 amending Council Directive 96/53/EC laying down for certain road vehicles circulating within the community the maximum authorized dimensions in national and international traffic and the maximum authorized weights in international traffic; "Directive (EU) 2022/738" means Directive (EU) 2022/738 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 April 2022 amending Directive 2006/1/EC on the use of vehicles hired without drivers for the carriage of goods by road; "Directive (EU) 2024/846" means Commission Delegated Directive

(EU) 2024/846 of 14 March 2024 amending Directive 2006/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on minimum conditions for the implementation of Regulations (EC) No 561/2006 and (EU) No 165/2014 and Directive 2002/15/EC as regards social legislation relating to road transport activities; ''driver'' means any person who drives the vehicle even for a short period, or who is carried in the vehicle as part of his duties in order to be available for driving if necessary and duly licensed or recognized in accordance with the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations; ''driver’s mate'' means a person engaged by the haulier who shall accompany the driver in order to assist him, excluding driving, unless he is duly licensed to do so;

''driving period'' means the accumulated driving time from when a driver commences driving following a rest period or a break until he takes a rest period or a break. The driving period may be continuous or broken; ''driving time'' means the duration of driving activity recorded automatically or semi-automatically by the recording equipment as defined in the Malta Vehicles (Weights, Dimensions and

Equipment) Regulations or recorded manually as required by regulation 37 of the said regulations; ''ECMT'' means the European Conference of Ministers of Transport; ''employer'' means the person by whom a worker is, or, where the employment has ceased, was employed, and includes a partnership, company, cooperative society, association or other body of persons, whether vested with legal personality or not; ''European Union'' has the same meaning as is given to it in the European Union Act and includes Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein;

''goods vehicle'' means rigid-bodied vehicles, tractors, trailers and semi-trailers:

(a) registered for carrying out road haulage operations in Malta; or

(b) registered for carrying out road haulage operations in another country; or

(c) a coupled combination of vehicles, the motor vehicle of which at least is registered in the manner set out in paragraphs (a) and (b) and which are used exclusively for the carriage of goods: Provided that for the purposes of these regulations a vehicle is considered as a goods vehicle if it has a minimum gross vehicle weight of 3,500 kg. ''haulier'' means a person or undertaking who carries out road haulage operations whether for profit or otherwise; "hired vehicle" means any vehicle which, for remuneration and for a determined period, is put at the disposal of an undertaking which engages in the carriage of goods by road for hire or reward or for its own account on the basis of a contract with the undertaking which makes the vehicle available;

''hire or reward'' means the carriage of goods other than on own account, that is to say against payment or compensation, whether such payment or compensation is made directly or indirectly; ''holder'' means the person in whose name a carriage licence or cabotage licence is issued; "intermodal transport operation" means:

(a) the combined transport operations defined in Article 1 of Council Directive 92/106/EEC engaged in the transport of one or more containers or swap bodies, up to a total maximum length of 45 feet; or

(b) transport operations engaged in the transport of one or more containers or swap bodies, up to a total maximum length of 45 feet, using waterborne transport, provided that the length of the initial or the final road leg does not exceed 150km in the territory of the Union. The distance of 150km referred to above may be exceeded in order to reach the nearest suitable transport terminal for the envisaged service in the case of:

(i) vehicles complying with point 2.2.2(a) or (b) of the First Schedule of Motor Vehicles (Weights, Dimensions and Equipment) Regulations; or

(ii) vehicles complying with point 2.2.2(c) or (d) of the First Schedule of Motor Vehicles (Weights, Dimensions and Equipment) Regulations, in cases where such distances are permitted in the relevant Member State. For intermodal transport operations, the nearest suitable transport terminal providing a service may be located in a Member State other than the Member State in which the shipment was loaded or unloaded; ''maximum permissible mass'' means the maximum authorized operating mass of a vehicle when fully laden; ''Member State'' means a Member State of the European Union;

''mobile worker'' means any worker forming part of the travelling staff, including trainees and apprentices, who is in the service of an undertaking which operates transport services of goods by road for hire or reward or on its own account and includes any driver who is not a self-employed driver;

''motor vehicle'' means any self-propelled vehicle travelling on the road, other than a vehicle permanently running on rails, and normally used for the carriage of goods; ''multi-manning'' means the situation where, during each period of driving between any two consecutive daily rest periods, or between a daily rest period and a weekly rest period, there are at least two drivers in the vehicle to do the driving. For the first hour of multi-manning the presence of another driver or drivers is optional but for the remainder of the period it is compulsory;

''night time'' means a period of four hours between 01.00 and 05.00;

''night work'' means any work performed during night time; ''normal residence'' means the place where a person habitually lives, for at least 185 days in each calendar year, because of personal and occupational ties, or, in the case of a person with no occupational ties, because of personal ties which show close links between that person and the place where he is living: Provided that, the normal residence of a person whose occupational ties are in a different place from his personal ties and who consequently lives in turn in different places situated in two or more Member States shall be regarded as being the place of his personal ties, provided that such person returns there regularly. This last condition need not be met where the person is living in an Member State in order to carry out a task of a definite duration; attendance at a university or school shall not imply taking up of normal residence; ''occupation of road haulage operator'' shall mean the activity of any undertaking consisting of carriage by road for hire or reward by means of a goods vehicle; ''operator’s licence for the carriage of goods by road'' means a licence issued by the Authority to undertakings established in Malta;

''other work'' means all activities as defined in the definition ''working times'' except driving, including any work for the same or another employer, within or outside the transport sector; ''own account'' refers to carriage by road provided the following conditions are fulfilled:

(a) the goods carried are the property of the undertaking or have been sold, bought, let out on hire or hired, produced, extracted, processed or repaired by the undertaking;

(b) the purpose of the journey is to carry the goods to or from the undertaking or to move them, either inside the undertaking or outside for its own requirements;

(c) the motor vehicles used for such carriage are driven by employees of the undertaking;

(d) the vehicles carrying the goods are owned by the undertaking or have been bought by it on deferred terms or hired, provided that in the latter case they meet the conditions of Directive 2006/1/EC;

(e) carriage is no more than ancillary to the overall activities of the undertaking; ''partnership'' includes an association, not registered under the Companies Act, between two or more persons; ''periods of availability'' means periods other than those relating to break times and rest periods during which the mobile worker is not required to remain at his workstation, but must be available to answer any calls to start or resume driving or to carry out other work, including such periods during which the mobile worker is accompanying a vehicle being transported by ferryboat or by train as well as periods of waiting at frontiers and those due to traffic prohibitions; ''persons performing mobile road transport activities'' means any mobile worker or self- employed driver who performs such road transport activities;

''public highway'' means national, arterial, distributor, access and local access roads as defined in the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations; ''reduced daily rest period'' means any period of rest of at least nine hours but less than eleven hours; ''reduced weekly rest period'' means any period of rest of less than forty-five hours, which may, subject to the conditions laid down in regulation 29, be reduced to a minimum of twenty-four consecutive hours;

''regular daily rest period'' means any period of rest of at least eleven hours. Alternatively, this regular daily rest period may be taken in two periods, the first of which must be an uninterrupted period of at least three hours and the second an uninterrupted period of at least nine hours;

''regular weekly rest period'' means any period of rest of at least forty-five hours;

"Regulation (EC) No 561/2006" means Regulation (EC) No 561/ 2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport and amending Council Regulations (EEC) No 3821/ 85 and (EC) No 2135/98 and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85; "Regulation (EC) No 1071/2009" means Regulation (EC) No 1071/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 establishing common rules concerning the conditions to be complied with to pursue the occupation of road transport operator and repealing Council Directive 96/26/EC; "Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009" means Regulation (EC) No 1072/ 2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 on common rules for access to the international road haulage market; "Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012" means Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on administrative cooperation through the Internal Market Information System and repealing Commission Decision 2008/49/EC ("the IMI Regulation"); "Regulation (EU) No 165/2014" means Regulation (EU) No 165/ 2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 February 2014 on tachographs in road transport, repealing Council Regulation

(EEC) No 3821/85 on recording equipment in road transport and amending Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport;

"Regulation (EU) 2016/679" means Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation);

''rest'' means any uninterrupted period during which the driver may freely dispose of his time;

''rigid bodied vehicle'' means any mechanically self-propelled vehicle circulating on the road, other than a vehicle running on rails, and normally used for carrying goods; ''road transport activities'' shall include driving, loading and unloading, cleaning and technical maintenance, and all other work intended to ensure the safety of the vehicle, its cargo or to fulfil the legal, or regulatory obligations directly linked to the specific transport operations under way, including dealing with administrative formalities with police, customs and immigration officers;

''self-employed driver'' means anyone whose main occupation is to transport goods by road for hire or reward within the meaning of European Union legislation under cover of a licence issued in the European Union or any other professional authorisation to carry out the aforementioned transport, who is entitled to work for himself and who is not tied to an employer by an employment contract or by any other type of working hierarchical relationship, who is free to organise the relevant working activities, whose income depends directly on the profits made and who has the freedom, individually or through a cooperation between self-employed drivers, to have commercial relations with several customers;

''semi-trailer'' means a trailer without a front axle coupled in such a way that a substantial part of its weight and of the weight of its load is borne by the tractor or motor vehicle; "shipper" means a legal entity or a natural or legal person who is named on the bill of lading or on an equivalent transport document, such as "through" bill of lading, as the shipper and/or in whose name or on whose behalf a contract of carriage has been concluded with the transport company; ''tractor'' means any self-propelled vehicle travelling on the road, other than a vehicle permanently running on rails, and specially designed to pull, push or move trailers, semi-trailers, implements or machines;

''trailer'' means any vehicle designed to be coupled to a motor vehicle or a tractor;

''undertaking'' means any natural person, any legal person, whether profit-making or not, any association or group of persons without legal personality, whether profit-making or not, or any official body, whether having its own legal personality or being dependent upon an authority having such personality;

''valid'' shall be associated with any legitimate licence as issued by the competent authority, and to mean that such a licence is in effect and current for the period stated on the licence by virtue of the licence holder having met and continues to meet fully the obligations in accordance with the regulations;

''vehicle'' means, for the purpose of these regulations, a motor vehicle, tractor, trailer or semi-trailer or a combination of these vehicles intended exclusively for the carriage of goods;; ''week'' means the period between 00.00 hours on Monday and 24.00 hours on the following Sunday; ''weekly driving time'' means the total accumulated driving time during a week; ''weekly rest period'' means the weekly period during which a driver may freely dispose of his time and covers a ''regular weekly rest period'' and a ''reduced weekly rest period'' as defined under these regulations;

''working time” means:

(a) in the case of a mobile worker, the time from the beginning to the end of work, during which the mobile worker is at his workstation, at the disposal of the employer and exercising his functions or activities, being -

(i) the time devoted to road transport activities; and

(ii) the times during which the mobile worker cannot dispose freely of his time and is required to be at his workstation, ready to take up normal work, with certain tasks associated with being on duty, in particular during periods awaiting loading or unloading where their foreseeable duration is not known in advance, that is to say either before departure or just before the actual start of the period in question, or under collective agreements or any other agreement entered into between the employer and mobile workers employed by him in compliance with national legislation;

(b) in the case of a self-employed driver, the time from the beginning to the end of work, during which the self-employed driver is at his workstation, at the disposal of the client and exercising his functions or activities, being -

(i) the time devoted to road transport activities; and

(ii) the times during which the self-employed driver cannot dispose freely of his time and is required to be at his workstation, ready to take up normal work, with certain tasks associated with being on duty, in particular during periods awaiting loading or unloading where their foreseeable duration is not known in advance, that is to say either before departure or just before the actual start of the period in question, or under agreements between the social partners:

Provided that general administrative work that is not directly linked to the specific transport operation underway shall not be deemed to be working time;; ''workstation” means -

(a) the location of the main place of business of the undertaking for which the person performing mobile road transport activities carries out duties, together with its various subsidiary places of business, regardless of whether they are located in the same place as its head office or main place of business,

(b) the vehicle which the person performing mobile road transport activities uses when he carries out duties, or

(c) any other place in which activities connected with transportation are carried out.