Cabotage operations within the European Union are governed by Regulation (EC) No. 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council. 1072/2009 (its content is available on EUR-Lex at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32009R1072). This regulation, which is directly applicable in all EU Member States, has harmonized the rules and principles for cabotage operations and set out the specific number of cabotage operations allowed, as well as the period during which such carriage can take place.

For carriers arriving from another Member State or a third country carrying out cabotage operations, it is necessary to know the following basic rules, which are already provided for in the above-mentioned regulation:

1. A maximum of 3 cabotage consignments (calculated from the date of unloading) may be carried out by the same vehicle in the host country when arriving in a specific country (performing an international carriage), which must be completed within 7 days from the end of the international carriage (the last time you left the cabotage carriage within 7 days of the last unloading, after the international carriage has been completed)ю
2. If the carrier enters a particular EU Member State without load (“empty”), he may only carry out 1 cabotage in the host country, which must be carried out within 3 days of arrival in not loaded vehicle to that Member State (unloading must take place within 3 days from the date of entry of the empty truck into the country). Such carrier has the right to carry out another 2 cabotage operations in the other two EU Member States (one shipment in each of the two other EU Member States) in accordance with the above requirements. This means that the maximum number of cabotage operations that can be carried out by a foreign carrier entering an empty EU Member State is 3 cabotage, which can only be carried out after 1 transfer in each of the three EU Member States.
3. The carrier carrying out cabotage operations must have evidence of the international and every cabotage carriage performed (transport data which should be included in the CMR or local consignment notes). Therefore, if a carrier accepts the carriage of three goods to different consignees at one place of loading, three cabotage operations are deemed to be carried out (hence, the total allowable cabotage limit is exhausted).
4. International carriage may be carried out subject to possession of a Community license and a driver attestation (in the case of a third-country national).