IRU workshop: Are light commercial vehicles ready to meet the July 2026 deadline?

As of 1 July 2026, road freight vehicles between 2.5 and 3.5 tonnes engaged in international EU services must be equipped with G2V2 smart tachographs and respect both EU driving and rest time rules and Lex specialis on posting of drivers. This is in addition to the obligation, since 2022, to have certified true copies of the community licence on board and to abide by the EU cabotage rules. 

The TRACE2 project was finalised and trainings are now under way for both enforcers and road transport operators and drivers, with the support of ELA and CORTE for the latter. Training materials and PPTs are now publicly available, including Q&As produced by the services of the European Commission. But they only cover large vehicles.

Today, there is no public data available on the number of companies and vehicles expected to be subject to these new rules, estimates vary between 300,000 to 2-3 million vehicles to be affected. In addition, the latest study on safe and secure truck parking areas in Europe (2025) revealed that operators and drivers of such vehicles are largely unaware of their new obligations, creating a significant risk that the majority are unprepared, which could have a negative impact on the functioning of the EU supply chain.

Workshop objective

The objective of the workshop is to take stock of the current situation and mobilise collective resources and knowledge. The aim is to help prepare the large majority of companies and drivers operating LCVs between 2.5 and 3.5 tonnes in international EU traffic. They need to be ready to meet the technical, legal and training obligations before the deadline of 1 July 2026.