The Council of Ministers, at its meeting to work on the new initiative of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA), has approved an amendment to the regulations governing land transport that provides a boost to last-mile distribution with electric vehicles.

This legislative amendment also simplifies other issues related to the certificate of professional competence required to exercise the profession of transport operator and in relation to the age of vehicles dedicated to this activity.

With the Royal Decree approved, one of the limitations that smaller road freight transport vehicles powered by alternative energy sources, specifically electric energy, had been suffering from is corrected.

Until now, the greater weight of these vehicles, due to the presence of batteries, meant that they were required to meet requirements corresponding to larger vehicles or that their payload was reduced, which discouraged their use for last-mile distribution.

With this modification, vehicles dedicated to the transport of goods that use electric power as a source of energy will not require authorisation for public transport of goods, even if they exceed the 2 tonnes of Maximum Authorised Mass (MMA) required for a conventional vehicle, and can reach up to 2.5 tonnes.

This covers the extra weight of batteries and allows them to have the same payload as an equivalent conventional vehicle, without the need to apply for authorisations for larger vehicles.

New developments in transport regulation

The regulation of the certificate of professional competence has also been improved to ensure that applicants have the necessary knowledge.

In addition, the composition of the tribunals for obtaining the Certificate of Professional Competence (CAP) has been adapted to the needs of the Autonomous Communities.

Thus, a penalty of 1/3 has been added for wrong answers in the exercises of the examination to obtain the certificate of professional competence.

This, thus avoiding deviations due to «chance» factors, and the composition of these tribunals for obtaining the CAP has been made more flexible, with the aim of guaranteeing that they can be set up quickly even in those Autonomous Regions which, due to their size, have a more limited human resources structure.

Likewise, the adaptation of the regulatory framework to the Supreme Court ruling which eliminated the obligation for applicants for a public road haulage authorisation has been completed.

All will depend on having at least one vehicle with an initial age of no more than 5 months, counted from its first registration.

In this way, the regulation has been improved so that this requirement also does not apply to the assignment of new vehicles or the replacement of any of them, as this generated asymmetrical situations for market operators, as well as unnecessary administrative procedures.