The RHA has welcomed a recent Traffic Commissioner decision to refuse the return of a Croatian-registered truck which was impounded by the DVSA after being found to have repeatedly breached UK cabotage rules.
The Volvo FH, registration RI5023AC, operated by Croatian company Leatrans D.O.O, was seized by DVSA officers at Ewloe, Flintshire, on 1 April 2026.
Following a hearing at Caernarfon on 21 July, Deputy Traffic Commissioner Victoria Davies ruled that the vehicle should not be returned to its owner.
She directed that, once the appeal period expires this week, on 20 August, DVSA can dispose of the vehicle in accordance with the regulations.
Responding to the ruling, RHA MD Richard Smith said the DVSA should be “applauded” for enforcing the rules in the case of a Croatian truck which had been used for three unauthorised domestic journeys after exhausting its permitted cabotage movements.
EU operators can only undertake cabotage after arriving in the UK laden and can make two cabotage movements within seven days of unloading their international load.
Once those movements have been completed, the vehicle must leave the UK, either empty or after collecting another international load.
Smith said legitimate UK operators were disadvantaged when overseas trucks carried out multiple domestic loads.
He added that, given the imbalance in UK-EU trade, it had become common for EU trucks to collect a domestic load before returning to the continent empty — a practice he said was legal.
“What isn’t legal is for non-UK trucks to be running around the UK doing multiple domestic loads,” he said.
Smith said the case should send a warning to overseas operators considering similar activity.
“I hope that DVSA has sent a strong signal to other hauliers hoping to flout the rules that it’s not worth the risk,” he said.
At the hearing in Caernarfon the DVSA reported that the Croatian truck had entered the UK on 25 March with an international load. After delivering that load to Bedford on 26 March, it undertook two further laden journeys, delivering a trailer to Pembroke Dock and another to Middlesex.
Those two journeys exhausted the vehicle’s permitted cabotage movements within the seven-day period following the unloading of its international load.
Despite this, the truck subsequently completed three further laden journeys between locations in England and Wales between 30 March and 1 April.
The Deputy Traffic Commissioner found those journeys were outside the cabotage exemption and amounted to unauthorised use.
The ruling also revealed that Leatrans had previously been warned about cabotage compliance following an encounter with DVSA in September 2025, when one of its vehicles was found operating outside the rules.
Leatrans argued that the April 2026 breaches resulted from errors by a transport planner and applied for the truck’s return. It said it had provided staff with training on cabotage requirements and had taken further measures following the April incident.
However, the Traffic Commissioner found those measures were insufficient.
The ruling said the company had relied too heavily on individual planners following instructions and had failed to put adequate quality-control measures in place to guard against human error.
The operator had provided refresher training after the September 2025 incident, but the Commissioner criticised the lack of evidence of a thorough investigation and noted that the company’s approach to quality assurance had not been changed.
The ruling also questioned why the planner responsible for the April breaches had repeatedly allocated non-compliant work despite having previously received training.
The Commissioner said a competent operator should have systems to identify and manage the risk of cabotage breaches rather than assuming that a lack of previous incidents demonstrated that its systems were effective.
Following the April impounding, Leatrans introduced daily transport-planning meetings and revised its quality-control and KPI processes to include cabotage compliance.
The Commissioner said these measures should reduce the risk of further breaches but warned that the system remained reliant on individual planner decisions.
She recommended that the operator investigate software or other solutions capable of preventing or reducing the risk of planners scheduling non-compliant journeys.
The Traffic Commissioner also rejected an argument that retaining the vehicle would be disproportionate, noting that the impounding regime was designed to balance vehicle owners’ rights against the need to enforce operator licensing and promote fair competition.
The decision is subject to appeal, with the deadline set for 20 August 2026.
