Is there no cabotage rules in Europe?
The reason I ask is because of this.
A motorsport test in Spain. Tyres from Germany, transported down via a Polish outfit as they were cheaper because the driver has to sit there for a week and then take the used and unused tyres back to Germany.
Freight taken from Germany to Spain and back by a haulier from a third country is not cabotage. Cabotage is when internal work in a country is performed by a haulier not from that country. If the Polish truck had picked up the tyres in one part of Spain and delivered them to another, that would be cabotage, and not necessarily illegal.
You see, silly little me thought that a German lorry should take loads to and from Germany, Spanish truck to and from Spain etc. Yes, a back load along the route etc, but I didn’t realise it is just one big ‘free for all’.
One thing I did notice coming home. The limiter rule seems to apply mainly to UK trucks. Most others seem to be a little quicker.
I didn’t know until this journey the trucks with NL on the back, it means No Limiter. I used to think it referred to a country.
DoYouMeanMe?:
You see, silly little me thought that a German lorry should take loads to and from Germany, Spanish truck to and from Spain etc.
But you took a load to Spain and you aren’t a Spanish truck. 
It has been a free for all, as you put it, for the last 15 or so years. Remember anyhaulier from an EU state can do what the polish truck did. I have done many jobs from one country to another, neither of which were the UK, over the years, originally with permits and since '92 with no permit required.
But you took a load to Spain and you aren’t a Spanish truck
Yes, but from UK and then brought it back. It wasn’t a paying job either as I drive the teams van/truck down there (as their driver) with all the other kit in it, but I get your point.
Somehow I doubt many teams would trust a race teams bikes and kit to the first or cheapest guy that came along.
DoYouMeanMe?:
Somehow I doubt many teams would trust a race teams bikes and kit to the first or cheapest guy that came along.
Very true, and that is where the guys who have found a niche market as OD’s do better than the general haulage ones.