Official Journal of the European Union

Series C

C/2024/445

(Case C-477/22) (1)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Road transport - Harmonisation of certain social legislation - Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 - Article 3(a) - Concept of ‘route covered by the service in question [not exceeding] 50 km’ - Carriage by road by vehicles used for the carriage of passengers on regular services - Route covered by the service in question not exceeding 50 km - Non-application of Regulation No 561/2006 - Mixed-use vehicles - Article 4(e) and (j) - Concepts of ‘other work’ and ‘driving time’ - Article 6(3) and (5) - Total driving time over two consecutive weeks - Time spent driving a vehicle excluded from the scope of that regulation)

(C/2024/445)

Language of the case: Italian

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: ARST SpA — Azienda regionale sarda trasporti

Defendants: TR, OS, EK, UN, RC, RS, OA, ZB, HP, WS, IO, TK, ME, SK, TF, TC, ND

Operative part of the judgment

1.Article 3(a) of 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, as modified by Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 February 2014

must be interpreted as meaning that the concept of ‘route covered by the service in question [not exceeding] 50 km’ corresponds to the route set by the transport undertaking, not exceeding that distance, that the vehicle concerned must travel by road in order to link a point of departure to a point of arrival and serve, where appropriate, predetermined intermediary stops, in order to ensure the carriage of passengers on the regular service to which it is assigned.

2.Article 2(1)(b), read in conjunction with Article 3(a), of Regulation No 561/2006 as amended by Regulation No 165/2014

must be interpreted as meaning that that regulation does not apply to all road transport carried out by the undertaking concerned, when the vehicles used for the carriage of passengers on regular services are used to cover, principally, routes covered by the service in question not exceeding 50 km and, occasionally, routes covered by the service in question exceeding 50 km. That regulation only applies when the routes exceed 50 km.

3.Article 6(3) of Regulation No 561/2006, as amended by Regulation No 165/2014,

must be interpreted as meaning that the concept of ‘total accumulated driving time during any two consecutive weeks’, as set out in that provision, only covers ‘driving time’ within the meaning of Article 4(j) of that regulation, to the exclusion of any ‘other work’, for the purposes of Article 6(5) of that regulation, carried out by the driver during those two weeks.

*

Date lodged 15.7.2022.

ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/445/oj

ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)