Protocol to the Agreement on the International Occasional Carriage of Passengers by Coach and Bus (Interbus Agreement)

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As we know, the policies of the European Union and its contracting states always and everywhere promote international passenger transport in and through Europe.

It is a fact that European tourism has been increasing for years and continues to grow. The contracting parties to the Protocol to the Agreement on the International Occasional Carriage of Passengers by Coach and Bus have therefore extended the scope of application of the Interbus Agreement to include regular services and special regular services under certain conditions, as it has hitherto covered only occasional services.

This new Agreement has been negotiated between the European Commission and other fourteen third countries outside the European Union, thus regulating transport between the EU and these signatory countries.

The main features of the Agreement include the following:

  1. The liberalisation of regular services, and regular services subject to authorisation, should apply only to services to or from the contracting party of establishment of the road transport operator in which his vehicles are registered.

As a general rule, regular services shall be available worldwide, subject to compliance with the obligation to settle where appropriate.

  1. Regular or scheduled services to and from the same Contracting Party may not be operated by carriers established in another Contracting Party.
  2. They are extended to regular services, which are services that ensure the transport of persons with a specified frequency and route. These services can pick up and set down passengers at predetermined stops.

Special regular services mean regular services which provide for the carriage of specified categories of passengers to the exclusion of other passengers. These services shall include, inter alia, carriage to and from the place of work for workers and carriage to and from the educational institution for school pupils and students.

  1. The principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality or place of establishment of the transport operator, and of the origin or destination of the coach or bus, and/or of the service provided, is prioritised as a basis for the provision of international road passenger transport services.
  2. It is necessary for the Contracting Parties to apply uniform social measures concerning the work of crews of buses and coaches engaged in international road transport, which are governed by the rules enshrined in the Interbus Convention, to which this Protocol should refer.
  3. The technical conditions applicable to buses and coaches operating international services between the contracting parties should be harmonised and should be governed by the rules enshrined in the Interbus Agreement.
  4. Carriers established in the European Union require an authorisation issued by the competent authority of the Member State of origin or destination of the transport.

Authorisations shall be issued in the name of the carrier and shall not be transferable.

The maximum period of validity of the authorisations shall be 5 years, and the minimum content of the authorisation shall include aspects such as: the type of service; the route; the period of validity of the authorisations; the stops and timetables.

These modifications are just some of the new guidelines for action implemented by the European Union to continue promoting cultural exchanges between the contracting parties to this

Damage to Cargo During Carriage by Sea Covered by CMR Consignment Note

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The International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to Bills of Lading of 25 August 1924, better known as the Hague-Visby Rules, is the law applicable to contracts of carriage made “in a bill of lading or any similar document serving as a document of title for the carriage of goods by sea“, which means that its provisions apply to claims arising out of any damage or loss, preservation, stowage, carriage, supervision and discharge of cargo.

On the other hand, the Instrument of Accession of Spain to the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (CMR), done in Geneva on 19 May 1956, shall apply to claims arising from land transport contracts formalised under the CMR document. For national transport, Law 15/2009, of 11 November, on the contract of carriage of goods by land, shall be applicable.

Both regulations provide for different regulations in their fields of application which, apart from general features such as the limitation of the carrier’s liability, are quite different.

This does not seem to pose a problem when both means of transport are not combined; however, the issue becomes more complicated when we find cases, much more common than might be imagined, in which different means of transport coexist to carry out the transport of certain goods under a single transport document (land – air – land // land – maritime – maritime, etc.).

In this specific case we will analyse, we are dealing with the transport of goods on a lorry, loaded in a factory in Burgos and bound for Cheltenham (United Kingdom), in which the need arises to load it onto a ferry from Santander to Portsmouth (United Kingdom) to complete the transport by sea crossing the Cantabrian Sea. There is a maritime transport, but this international transport contract is documented in a consignment note governed by the CMR Convention. In this case, which law will be applicable to damage occurring during the maritime transport phase, the CMR Convention or the Hague-Visby Rules?

Article 2.1 of the CMR Convention stipulates that in cases where one of the stages of a carriage covered by a CMR consignment note is carried by sea, without freight interruption, i.e. without unloading the goods, the CMR Convention will apply (complete transfer of the load with the truck or trailer); however, this regulation will not apply when the freight is interrupted, as in the case of a container, initially loaded on the platform of a truck, which is then loaded on board a ship, and subsequently reloaded onto another truck trailer.

Nor does the CMR Convention apply where it is proved that, in a carriage under a CMR consignment note without freight interruption, damage has occurred during the maritime phase; in this case, the potential liability of the road haulier will be determined in the way liability has been established for the maritime carrier.

In conclusion, for the law governing the non-road means of transport, in our case the Hague Visby Rules, to apply, it is required that the loss or damage was not caused by an act or omission of the road transport operator, and that such loss or damage could only have occurred during the carriage of the road vehicle on board the ship.

In any case, the identification of the applicable law is of vital importance, especially in terms of statutes of limitation and/or lapse of time, protests, or actions to be taken. Each case should be studied with the support of experts in the field.

Royal Decree-Law 14/2022 of 1 August and its most significant developments in the field of air transport

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Title II of this Royal Decree-Law contains measures on air transport that “counteract”, two years later, some of the measures that were implemented to reactivate the economy in the face of the impact of COVID-19 established by RDL 26/2020 of 7 July.

One of these measures that were implemented as a result of RDL 26/2020 of 7 July was Article 3, which included the procedure for the incorporation into Spanish domestic law of the Operational Guidelines adopted by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for the management of air passengers and aviation personnel in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic at airports, thus establishing their mandatory nature once they were incorporated.

However, given the good evolution of the degree of immunisation achieved against COVID-19, which has been maintained over time since the RDL was issued, it has been decided to eliminate the obligatory nature of the application of these operational guidelines, which in the European Union were originally created as recommendations for its Member States, in order to give them the mere character of an original recommendation, thus avoiding imposing additional obligations to those required in the European Union.

The main reason for this is the fuller and more complete revival of the holiday tourism sector, as well as a return to highly competitive passenger air transport.

Nevertheless, the intention was to build on and not totally discard a procedure that has been shown to be at least partially effective, to have a permanent instrument for future response to such rapidly spreading diseases as COVID-19 that may emerge. Therefore, Article 9 of this Royal Decree-Law extends the application of the procedure for the adoption of operational guidelines to other public health emergencies of international concern declared by the World Health Organisation which, due to their impact, justify the adoption by the competent bodies of the European Union, or by an international organisation to which Spain is a party, of operational guidelines, guides or recommendations for the management of air passengers, aviation personnel or the use of airports. In other words, we are talking about measures that can only be adopted when there is an international public health emergency declared by official bodies.

It should be noted that the guidelines adopted in accordance with the provisions of this Royal Decree-Law will be called “operational guidelines”, which will have the character or nature of mere recommendations, but that without prejudice to the above, according to Article 10 of this Royal Decree-Law, it is stated that:

“by order of the Minister of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, following a favourable report from the Minister of Health, the mandatory nature of all the operational guidelines or any of their precepts may be established”.

The scope of application of these operational guidelines shall be both the persons transiting through the airports located in Spanish territory and the companies and personnel carrying out their activity in these facilities, as well as the managers of the airports located in the national territory; airlines and operators operating at these airports, including air taxi and general aviation operations; companies providing ancillary or related services and, in general, all persons transiting through airport infrastructures.

Airport managers and airlines should inform passengers, either through digital means (such as their mobile applications, or via email), the airport public address system, or signage about the preventive measures they have adopted in their case, following the recommendations set out in the appropriate operational guidelines for the future.

Regarding passengers, it should be pointed out that they must collaborate with airport managers, airlines and health authorities in the implementation of the measures of the operational guidelines that affect them. Likewise, they will continue to be obliged to submit to the health controls established by the Ministry of Health and to adopt the preventive measures that are established.

It is for all of the above reasons that we advise air passenger transport operators to be attentive to the new operational guidelines that may be drawn up in the future, in case they are interested in incorporating some of the recommendations that are contemplated internally, and likewise, to make them aware that according to art. 10 of this Royal Decree-Law, these future operational guidelines could become mandatory, so they should also monitor and consider whether, faced with an operational guideline about which there is a rumour that it could become mandatory, they should begin to incorporate it from its initial phase, i.e. when it is still in the nature of a recommendation, in order to be more efficient in its management.

Automated Ports

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Once again, the special edition of “Transporte XXI” on Ports of Spain, in this case in its April 2023 version, collaborated with our office by publishing the article “Automated Ports” prepared by our colleague from Bilbao, Irantzu Sedano.

Irantzu’s article shows how the continuous advances in technology are having a major influence on the automation of ships, as well as on the automation of the ports in which they work. It is a fact that autonomous navigation brings as a direct and main consequence the need for autonomous berths and moorings in ports, thus forcing ports to focus their efforts on this new reality that is getting closer and closer to us, and which undoubtedly cannot be ignored.

This is why most Spanish ports are already automated in many of their functions; in other words, they use advanced technologies to improve efficiency and productivity in their operations, be they loading and unloading, transport and storage of goods, access to the port, etc. Automation reduces operating costs, optimises space, improves the safety of operations, as well as it allows the handling of large volumes of cargo and the reduction of waiting times for ships and lorries in the port.

However, this scenario also poses many legislative challenges, which will have to be tackled prudently and tenaciously to ensure safe and sustainable development of this new maritime reality:

Much of the pre-existing regulation is not adequate to deal with issues related to port automation and needs to be updated or even new specific regulations developed. These include: (i) the pre-existing and traditional security regulations such as ISPS (International Ship and Port Facilities Security), which have been updated to take into account the risks of port and ship automation, cyber security and data protection, etc.; (ii) the IMO recommendations; (iii) ISO standards establishing a framework for information security management; (iv) SAE J3016 standards relating to vehicle automation levels, which have been adapted for use on ships; (v) SNAME (Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers) guidelines.

The development of a legal framework should define the liability regime in case of accidents or damage in the context of autonomous systems.

Privacy and data protection regulation is required, in terms of respect for privacy rights and protection of shared personal data.

Modernisation and adaptation of existing workplaces must take place. Automation will undoubtedly reduce the need for human intervention, and it will be necessary to regulate the retraining and relocation of workers whose functions have been automated. Therefore, automation and robotisation will have to coexist with the human factor, provided that adequate measures are put in place to ensure safety, redistribution of tasks and adaptation of the workforce.

The cybersecurity of operations will have to be guaranteed by establishing regulations to always ensure the security of autonomous systems and data protection. It is a reality that malware attacks on automated maritime infrastructures have increased due to this new way of working that has been implemented.

Not only will all operators and competent authorities have to implement state-of-the-art security protocols and systems, but the cyber insurance phenomenon will have to coexist with this new reality, as at the end of the day this will be the only way to transfer the risk of possible cyber security incidents to a third party that will cover us for this eventuality.

In conclusion, as has been the case so far, but now even more so, it will be important that national and international regulatory authorities, the maritime and port industry, and the other actors in the sector, work together to develop an updated legal and regulatory framework adapted to the new realities of the port sector and maritime navigation.

Read the article…

AIYON visits the Port of Baiona and meets with the French association of transporters O.T.R.E.

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We would like to thank the Chamber of Commerce of Baiona for the excellent welcome we received during our visit to their port facilities on Wednesday 15th, a port that is currently undergoing a process of intense growth following the approval of important investments, which will greatly improve the area and will undoubtedly attract more traffic.

Zuberoa Elorriaga, from AIYON Bilbao, together with Sonia García acting as President of the Transport Business Association of Bizkaia (ASETRABI), met yesterday, Wednesday, with the commercial manager of the port of Baiona, Mr. Joxan Madinabeitia, who, as representative of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Baiona – Basque Country (CCI Bayonne Pays Basque), is working to establish a better understanding in cross-border logistics and wants to promote the possibilities of collaboration between companies and associations on both sides of the Basque-French border.

After visiting the port and getting to know the local traffic, the three of them had the opportunity to enjoy an interesting lunch with Mrs. Caroline Auge, head of the French hauliers’ association O.T.R.E. for the 64th (Pyrénées-Atlantiques area) and 40th (Landes area) departments. O.T.R.E. is the French representative organisation for small and medium-sized transport companies in France, grouping together more than 3,000 companies and 75,000 employees, and since 2021 it has been a member of the European Road Hauliers Association (UETR).

This lunch allowed them to share and discuss the realities experienced in each country in relation to road transport, as well as the new regulations being promoted by the European Union. Both associations considered this visit a good opportunity to establish the basis for future collaboration, with AIYON’s support and legal assistance when required by the heads of the associations or their members.

It should be recalled that AIYON is the firm of reference for ASETRABI and its associates in the areas related to land transport, insurance and other matters involved in its activity.

Royal Decree-Law 14/2022 of 1 August and its Most Significant Developments in the Field of Land Freight Transport

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As reflected in the Preamble of Royal Decree-Law 14/2022, of 1 August, on economic sustainability measures in the field of transport, in terms of grants and study aids, as well as measures for energy saving, efficiency and reduction of energy dependence on natural gas (hereinafter RDL 14/2022), the land freight transport sector in Spain is made up of small companies (53% of companies with heavy goods vehicles have only one vehicle), which exacerbates the difficulties that small road transport operators may have in adapting to scenarios in which sharp increases in transport costs occur unexpectedly and unpredictably (such as fuel, due to inflation and the war in Ukraine, or tyres and spare parts in general). This calls for greater intervention by the public authorities to guarantee the proper functioning of an activity that represents around 2% of Spanish GDP.

It is for this reason that on 2 August 2022, RDL 14/2022 came into force, which came to modify precepts of the national land transport of goods regulations such as Law 15/2009, of 11 November, on the Contract of Land Transport of Goods and Law 16/1987, of 30 July, on the Organisation of Land Transport.

Title I of RDL 14/2022 refers to land transport measures, and with the legislator’s objective in mind of guaranteeing that the price of transport be higher than the actual individual costs and expenses borne by the carrier, it has been considered necessary to require written documentation of transport contracts for a single consignment made with the actual carrier, provided that these exceed 150.00 euros, as well as of those contracts for continuous transport.

Similarly, it is now required that the transport price with reference to the related costs be expressly stated in the transport document, requiring that the transport price be equal to or higher than the actual individual costs incurred by the carrier (art. 1 RDL 14/2022 amending art. 10 bis Law on the Contract of Land Transport of Goods referring to the transport document in contracts concluded with the actual carrier).

This reformed article 10 bis of the Law on the Contract of Land Transport of Goods states that, in order to determine the actual cost of transport, it is possible to “take the time reference that best suits the carrier’s forecasts and business strategy”; in other words, a fairly flexible criterion has been chosen that allows the carrier to vary and adapt the cost of transport to the circumstances of the moment, or if desired, to the prices of the moment, and thus reflect it in the consignment note.

To translate the above into the daily practice of hauliers, and to know which costs can and cannot be included in the transport documents, we must refer to the new ninth additional provision of the Law on the Contract of Land Transport of Goods introduced by RDL 14/2022. This states that, in order to determine the actual individual cost of transport provided by the actual carrier, the cost item structure of the observatory of road freight transport costs drawn up by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda will be valid. This cost item includes:

  • Depreciation costs of the different elements (tractor units, trailers, semi-trailers and auxiliary equipment);
  • Annual financing costs of the different elements purchased;
  • Costs of driving personnel;
  • Vehicle insurance costs;
  • Tax costs;
  • Fuel costs;
  • Urea dilution costs;
  • Tyre, maintenance and repair costs;
  • Driver’s per diem costs;
  • Toll costs;
  • Indirect costs that can be passed on to each vehicle (such as fleet management software).

Consequently, we would recommend that all land transport operators have these costs perfectly identified in a general way for their entire fleet (pro rata for each vehicle) and that, subsequently and for each specific transport, they take “the time reference that best fits the carrier’s business strategy and forecasts” and adapt these costs, as if they were a tailor-made suit, in order to reflect them in the consignment note and ensure that the price they will finally charge for the transport is higher than the costs and expenses of the transport.

Finally, it should be noted that, if these costs are not reflected in the consignment note, in accordance with Article 13 of the Law on the Contract of Land Transport of Goods, this absence or irregularity in the consignment note provided for in Article 10 bis does not render the contract non-existent or null and void, and that the omission of any mention of Articles 10.1 and 10 bis.1 does not render the consignment note ineffective.

AIYON Abogados participates in the Special Supplement on Transport and Logistics of El Correo

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On the occasion of the celebration of the “Empack and Logistics & Automotion” trade fair, which will take place at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC) in Bilbao on 1 and 2 March 2023, the newspaper El Correo has prepared a special on Transport and Logistics with the collaboration of our firm.

AIYON has prepared the article “Why is adequate legal advice necessary for transport companies“, which aims to explain the need for the legal advisor to take an active part not only in the dispute resolution phases or claims that clients may require, but also in the previous phases of consultation, advice or processing. In any case, accompanying the operators in the logistics chain in an active and participative manner, trying to avoid possible setbacks in the development of their work, or to tackle problems, optimising their work as much as possible.

This collaboration is also accompanied by the participation as moderator of our partner from Bilbao, Zuberoa Elorriaga in the round table organised by the Basque Institute of Logistics and Sustainable Mobility (IVL/LEE) for the 2nd of March under the title “Present and Future of Land Freight Transport in the Basque Country”, in which Zuberoa will share space with professionals such as Sonia García – President of ASETRABI, Almudena Palomera – Manager Director at TUBACEX, Iñaki Cepeda – Manager of the GUITRANS Foundation, Inmaculada Ugarteche – Director of UNIPORT and Antonio Jaraices – Director of Organisation, Communication and Corporate Strategy at EUSKOTREN.

How Does Illegal Drug Trafficking Affect Transport?

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The most common way to bring illegal drugs in a country is by using the most common means of transport, such as airplanes used for air traffic, trucks used for land transportation, and ships used for maritime traffic.

When we think about how the entry of these illegal drugs can be developed in such a way that they cannot be detected in the transport from one country to another, in some cases it requires the active participation of the passengers and their luggage as essential elements that help the traffic, but in other cases the illegal cargo is hidden in containers or trailers, together with other regular cargo, in order to facilitate its transit. But there is an increasingly common phenomenon that we have been able to deal with at AIYON, which consists of the introduction of drugs hidden in the means of transport itself.

In their case, road haulage companies, especially those operating routs from Africa to Spain via the Strait of Gibraltar, face the increasingly common risk of having drug bales hidden on the outside of their trucks, specifically in the underbody, without the haulage companies or drivers being aware of it.

This operation seems to be carried out relatively easily and quickly, as the ways of placing the drugs range from fastening them to the axles of the truck with clips to placing them with magnets attached to the chassis, so that the illegal packages can be placed during any stop or rest of the driver’s journey. Although the truth is that sometimes it is not even necessary for the driver to be absent from the truck, as even when he is in the cabin, he may even not notice that there is someone under the truck (a phenomenon that also occurs when stowaways are transported).

It would be logical to think that, since it is the outside of the truck, a place in the vehicle to which anyone has access, the driver should not be held responsible until it is proven that he was the one who placed the drugs there or knew about their placement when transporting them, but the reality in the courts is quite different.  In fact, there are quite a few proceedings for crimes against the public health against truck drivers in which, after a routine inspection at border control, bundles of drugs are found and the drivers are finally convicted, even if it is not proven that they were the ones who placed the drugs there.

With regard to ships, the same problem can be detected when bales of up to 600 kilos are placed on the outside of a ship, attached to the hull below the waterline. Bales that require a complex operation, as it is divers who, at the port of origin, introduce the package into certain cavities of the ship so that they can face a sea crossing of several days and be picked up at the port of destination by other divers, without the shipowners or the crew having to be aware of it. It is a reality that there are certain ports around the world that require ships docking in them to carry out anti-drug inspection before putting to sea.

Once the problem has been detected by the police, the regular procedure carried out in the case of land transporters (whose involvement in the criminal act is often questioned more than in the case of shipowners) is to arrest the transporters allegedly involved and bring them before the police, and to proceed to the provisional weighing of the drugs by the police.

If after the provisional weighing, the quantity of drugs seized is considered notorious, the prosecutor will assess whether there is a risk of flight, the possibility of destruction of evidence and/or re-offending; having assessed this, he will draw up a report in which he will propose the measures he considers appropriate, including provisional imprisonment if necessary.

After an appearance in court on the tenth day and based on the weighing of the drugs, either Urgent Proceedings are initiated, i.e. without an investigation phase and with the possibility of an agreement with the prosecutor to pass sentence in the Examining Court, or Preliminary Proceedings in the event that they are requested by the prosecutor, issuing an Order for Abbreviated Proceedings in which a time limit is given for the written pleadings and defence. Finally, the Criminal Court, by means of an order, will admit or reject the evidence and set the date for the trial, with a subsequent sentence.

In view of this, surely the best advice we can give to carriers is to exercise extreme caution and, in the event that they are affected, to seek immediate advice from professional lawyers to best defend their interests.  

The Insurance Compensation Consortium and its Policyholders, with a Special Focus on Inland Road Freight Transport

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In this article we will analyse how the Insurance Compensation Consortium (hereinafter “CCS”) is legally configured, as well as some of the most common cases in which the CCS is related to land transport of goods, delving into the characteristics of the relationship established between the CCS and its insured parties.

The CCS was created in 1954, and is currently defined as a public business entity, framed in articles 103 and following of Law 40/2015, of 1 October, on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector (LRJSP).

Public business entities are public law entities with separate legal personality, their own assets and autonomy in their management. As far as their financing is concerned, article 103 of the LRJSP states that “they are financed with market revenues, and that together with the exercise of administrative powers, they carry out service activities, management of services or production of goods of public interest, which are susceptible to payment”.

In addition, and as a peculiarity, it should be stressed that, although we are talking about public law entities, they are governed by private law. This is stated in Article 104 of the LRJSP, which specifies that “public business entities are governed by private law” and, specifically, it is also regulated in the CCS’s own regulations, in particular in Article 2 of Royal Legislative Decree 7/2004, of 29 October, which approves the revised text of the Legal Statute of the Insurance Compensation Consortium (hereinafter, “Legal Statute of the CCS”). Article 2 which, regarding the legal status of the entity, states: 1. The Consortium shall be governed by the provisions contained in these legal statutes (…). 2. It shall be subject, in the exercise of its insurance activity and, in the absence of special rules contained in these legal statutes, to the provisions of the revised text of the Law on the Regulation and Supervision of Private Insurance, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 6/2004, of 29 October, and in Law 50/1980, of 8 October, on Insurance Contracts. 3. The contracting of the Consortium is governed by private law, (…)”.

If we go to the Legal Statute of the CCS, we find the functions attributed to this public business entity in Chapter III, which is divided into a First Section covering its private functions in the insurance field, and a Second Section containing its public functions. Specifically, it is in the section relating to private functions where we find the different cases in which the CCS can be related to land transport of goods, which are as follows:

  • Compensate damage caused by extraordinary risks, understood as natural phenomena, or derived from events of political or social incidence, on the obvious condition of having subscribed an insurance policy for the persons or goods affected.
    This category would include, for example, all the damage suffered by the different tractor units and semi-trailers of hauliers as a result of the altercations and pickets during the strikes and stoppages of activity in the transport sector in March 2021, and which were about to be repeated in November 2022. These strikes or stoppages would fall under one of the extraordinary risks by being classified as “popular unrest”[1].
  • Assume the compulsory coverage of vehicles not accepted by insurance companies (e.g., those with foreign registration plates), as well as that of public bodies that request it. Also, compensate for damage caused by unknown, uninsured, or stolen vehicles. Think, for example, when there is a non-payment of premiums and the policy ceases to have effect after the legally established period of time[2], whether it is a private vehicle, a semi-trailer, a tractor unit or any other vehicle that causes damage.

Having analysed these two most common cases in which the CCS is related to land transport of goods, we consider it interesting to determine the characteristics of the relationship that the CCS establishes with its policyholders.

In this sense, our highest Court has been concluding since the 1990s that the relationship that exists between the insured and the CCS is contractual, provided that the insured has taken out an insurance policy with a Spanish insurance company under which the insured pays a surcharge on the premium in favour of the CCS. In such cases, the insured will be deemed to have two insurance contracts, one with the Spanish private insurer with which they took out the policy and the other with the CCS. However, both are instrumented in a single contract or policy, which is the one they sign with the Spanish private insurer.

The Supreme Court has also pointed out on several occasions that each of these two contracts has its own content and, as such, is subject to different legal regimes. Even so, the rules of the Insurance Contract Law will always be applicable to contracts entered into with the Insurance Compensation Consortium insofar as they are not provided for in its specific regulation, among others, the insured objects and their situation; the insured sum or the scope of the coverage; the amount of the premium, the surcharges and taxes; or the duration of the contract with expression of the day and time in which its effects begin and end.

Ultimately, a compulsory supplementary insurance contract is established between the insured and the CCS when the various surcharges on the premiums paid for the insurance are credited. That is why, in most cases, the liability of the CCS will be contractual. In the case of road hauliers, when policies are taken out for each insured tractor unit and/or semi-trailer.

In view of the above, we believe that it is absolutely essential for professionals in the transport sector to be aware of the characteristics of insurance policies, taken out directly or via their insurance brokers, and to review them periodically. This is because they contain intrinsic contractual rights and duties, of vital importance, which directly affect them as insured parties.

All of which is recommended in order to ensure better protection of the risks inherent in its activity and of the services provided to third parties in the event that they are affected by claims or incidents.

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[1] Defined by art. 2.1 k). of Royal Decree 300/2004, of 20 February, approving the Regulation on extraordinary risk insurance.

[2] Art. 15 of Law 50/1980 of 8 October 1980 on Insurance Contracts.

Aiyon, taking care of what is important

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Another year full of experiences.
Together we have faced and overcome every challenge.
You know that taking care of you is what gets us going every day.
The trust you place in us continues to thrill us.
Without it we could not have shared this path.
In these times when we are with our people.

We wish you a safe return home.

Aiyon
taking care of what is important
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year