Romania Protects Truck Drivers from Mandatory Loading and Unloading – And Germany?
Since July 2026, professional drivers in Romania will no longer be automatically required to load or unload certain freight transports under new legislation. The law clarifies responsibilities and stipulates fines for violations. However, exceptions exist, including an explicit written consent from the driver. While Spain and Portugal have already introduced comparable regulations, task allocation in Germany remains largely a matter of contractual agreements.
Anyone who regularly works at loading ramps as a professional truck driver knows the situation. The truck is finally at the gate, documents have been handed over, and theoretically, warehouse staff could begin unloading. Instead, the driver is handed a pallet jack and expected to retrieve goods from the cargo deck themselves.
Sometimes it doesn’t stop there. Pallets must be moved, plastic film removed, or goods prepared for further processing. The driver temporarily becomes a warehouse worker while the next trip may already be waiting.
Of course, there are types of transport where loading or unloading is inherently part of the driver’s duties from the outset. For example, someone working in timber transport with their own loading crane has a different task distribution than a driver delivering palletized trade goods to a central warehouse.
Problems arise where additional work is expected without appropriate agreement or consideration for actual working conditions.
Therefore, special regulations have been introduced in several European countries to more clearly define responsibility for loading and unloading. Romania joined this group in summer 2026.
Romania Has Now Enacted the Law
When I first engaged with the Romanian initiative in March 2026, the law had not yet been definitively passed. It has since become binding law from the draft.
On May 27, 2026, the Romanian Chamber of Deputies voted in favor of the law. On June 24, it was published as Law No. 100/2026 in the Romanian Official Gazette. According to Article 7, it came into force 30 days after its publication, i.e., on July 24, 2026.
The law applies to commercial road freight transport with vehicles having a permissible gross mass exceeding 12.5 tonnes.
Under Article 2, drivers of such vehicles may generally not be compelled by transport customers, suppliers, intermediaries, or their representatives to load or unload goods, cargo units, or packaging.
Thus, the regulation does not merely intervene in the organization of a single freight forwarder; it also implicates those who commission transport services or are involved in their execution.
This is quite significant in freight transport. After all, many conflicts regarding loading and unloading do not arise between the driver and their own employer, but directly with the customer.
A driver arrives with their cargo and is told on-site that they must unload before their documents can be processed. The driver then faces the question of whether to complete the additional work or risk a potentially prolonged confrontation.
It is precisely in such situations that the Romanian regulation intervenes.
Not an Absolute Ban: The Law Contains Exceptions
However, it would be incorrect to characterize the new regulation as a complete ban on all loading and unloading activities by professional drivers.
Article 2, paragraph 2 provides an exception for specialized transports. If the nature of the transport requires the driver to unload, this activity may continue to be permissible under certain conditions.
For this, the corresponding possibility must be provided in the employment contract or a supplementary agreement with the employer.
This is understandable for specialized transports. A tanker truck, a timber transporter with a loading crane, or other vehicles with special unloading technology cannot be simply compared to the transport of palletized trade goods.
The exact scope of such exceptions arises from the legal prerequisites and any relevant implementing provisions. A blanket exemption for all specialized transports cannot be derived from this.
Particularly interesting is another provision.
Article 3, paragraph 2 stipulates that with explicit written consent from the driver to load or unload, while observing occupational health and safety regulations, no corresponding administrative offense exists.
Thus, the law opens up a possibility to carry out such work even outside explicitly regulated specialized transports.
This provision is likely to play an important role in practice.
After all, written consent is initially a documented will of the driver. However, it does not automatically answer the question under what circumstances this consent was obtained.
For example, how voluntary is a signature if the driver is under time pressure, their employer pushes for quick processing, or the customer states that nothing will happen without their assistance?
This is not a claim about how Romanian companies will act in the future. It is a practical question that inevitably arises when applying such an exception clause.
Therefore, it will also be crucial how the competent authorities control voluntariness and compliance with occupational health and safety regulations.
What Fines Are Threatened for Violations?
Romania does not stop at issuing a non-binding recommendation.
Article 4 of the law stipulates specific fines. Anyone who violates the ban by forcing drivers to load or unload goods—as a transport customer, goods supplier, or intermediary—must expect a fine between 5,000 and 20,000 Romanian lei.
For transport companies that agree on corresponding obligations in their contracts with customers or other parties contrary to legal provisions, fines between 10,000 and 20,000 lei are provided for.
Such inadmissible contract clauses are also void by law pursuant to Article 3, paragraph 1.
Control is carried out by the competent authorities of the Romanian Labour Inspectorate as well as the state control body for road transport, ISCTR.
The authorities may, among other things, request transport documents and carry out inspections at transport companies as well as at loading and unloading sites.
This provides at least a legal basis to investigate violations not only during a roadside inspection but also directly at the concerned business premises.
Whether the regulation actually leads to relief for drivers in everyday practice will, however, only be assessed based on its practical enforcement.
Germany: What § 412 HGB actually regulates
There is also a legal provision in Germany regarding responsibility for loading and unloading.
The decisive provision is § 412 of the German Commercial Code (HGB).
Accordingly, the consignor is generally obliged to load, stow, and secure the goods for transport as well as unload them. The carrier is instead responsible for safe loading operations.
However, this allocation of tasks applies only insofar as nothing else results from the circumstances or trade usage.
Deviant contractual agreements can also play a role.
Important here is a distinction that is often overlooked in the transport industry: § 412 HGB initially regulates the relationship between the parties to the contract of carriage.
It does not directly determine which specific tasks an employed professional driver must perform vis-à-vis his employer.
If a transport company takes over unloading from a customer, this therefore does not automatically mean that every driver is personally obliged to carry out this work.
In addition, the employment contractual obligations, the employer’s right of instruction, and the applicable occupational health and safety regulations must be taken into account.
Pursuant to § 106 of the Trade Regulation Act (Gewerbeordnung), the employer may specify the content, location, and time of the performance of work in more detail within the limits set by law and contract. This right of instruction is not unlimited.
It therefore depends on the specific employment contract, the agreed activity, and the respective circumstances.
A general statutory ban under which employed truck drivers in Germany are generally not allowed to load or unload goods does not result from § 412 HGB at all.
I have described this in more detail in my article § 412 HGB – Why a single paragraph does not explain the entire legal situation /post/bkf/paragraph/.
When the driver becomes a warehouse worker
How different practice looks in the German transport industry, I have experienced myself during my professional career.
There are companies where the warehouse staff take over the goods and the driver can focus on his actual transport tasks. With other customers, it is part of the normal process for drivers to unload themselves, remove packaging material, or make goods available at certain locations in the warehouse.
A concrete example is the supply of trade and distribution warehouses. There, drivers can be asked to move pallets from the loading area themselves using a pallet truck.
Sometimes it does not stop with mere unloading. Then films must also be removed, pallets shifted, or other tasks completed that are only indirectly related to the actual transport.
Such work is not unlawful solely because it is carried out by a professional driver.
However, it must be clarified who is responsible for these activities, whether the driver can be obliged to perform them under labour law, and whether the necessary occupational health and safety measures are observed.
Working time also plays a role. Unloading goods is generally working time and not, for example, rest time just because the truck is not moving during this period.
Precisely for that reason, I consider a clear allocation of tasks to be important.
A driver who takes on physically demanding loading work after several hours of driving is not automatically as rested afterwards as someone who was actually able to take a break during this time.
Spain has already acted in 2022
Romania is not the first European country to legally limit the involvement of drivers in loading and unloading.
Spain has already introduced corresponding provisions with Royal Legislative Decree 3/2022.
The Spanish regulations generally apply to drivers of goods vehicles with a permissible gross mass of more than 7.5 tonnes.
They may, as a rule, not participate in the loading and unloading processes, including the handling of load carriers and packaging.
However, there are also expressly regulated exceptions here, for example for moves, tank transport, certain bulk cargo transport, and transport with special technical equipment.
In addition, Spanish law contains further special exception cases.
The regulation is therefore also not a general ban on every loading and unloading activity by drivers.
It does, however, create a clear legal starting point and limits the possibilities of transferring such work to the driving staff.
Portugal also relies on clear responsibilities
Portugal also revised the rules for loading and unloading in road freight transport as early as 2021.
Through Legislative Decree No. 57/2021, responsibilities for loading and unloading operations were specified, among other things.
In principle, these tasks should be carried out by the consignor or the consignee. Even if the carrier is responsible due to an explicit contractual agreement, they must generally employ correspondingly qualified and trained personnel who are not the driver.
However, the Portuguese regulation also contains exceptions.
For example, drivers may continue to undertake loading and unloading work under applicable collective bargaining conditions in certain distribution transports, moves, or special types of transport.
Particularly interesting is the significance of collective bargaining regulations here.
They show that not every detail needs to be regulated exclusively by a legal prohibition. Also, collectively negotiated working conditions can play an important role in task allocation.
Spain, Portugal, and Romania pursue comparable goals with these measures but use different legal instruments and exceptions.
As a result, there is no uniform European ban on loading and unloading for professional drivers.
What Germany could learn from this
The developments in these three countries show that the allocation of tasks between driver, carrier, consignor, and consignee can indeed be regulated more precisely by law.
In Germany, however, much still depends on the respective contracts and the concrete organisational structure within companies.
This does not necessarily have to function poorly. After all, there are also companies here that do not burden their drivers with additional warehouse work and ensure a clear separation of tasks.
Problematic are rather cases where responsibility and actual work performance diverge.
If a client expects a driver to unload, even though this does not belong to their agreed tasks, a conflict arises. It becomes even more difficult when drivers feel pressured to undertake such work anyway in order to continue their tour without further delays.
A legal regulation following the Spanish or Romanian model could provide more clarity here.
However, it must carefully distinguish between different types of transport. A driver in break-bulk transport has different tasks than someone transporting timber with a loading crane or travelling with a tank vehicle.
Similarly, it must be clarified how possible exceptions should be regulated and controlled.
Because a prohibition alone helps little if subsequently broad exceptions or standardised consent forms practically maintain the same working conditions.
Without the drivers themselves, little will change
In discussions about better working conditions, reference is often made to politics, companies, and associations. Of course, these bear considerable responsibility.
However, we should not exclude drivers from their own role in this process.
Those who want change must also be willing to stand up together with other employees for it.
This does not begin only with a political demand for new laws. Even within a company, employees can try to achieve clear task allocations, safe work processes, and binding regulations for additional activities.
Trade unions and works councils can play an important role here.
The regulations in other European countries were not simply dropped from the sky either. In Spain, legal changes were preceded by disputes and negotiations between the government and the transport industry. In Portugal, employee representation bodies were also involved in the preparatory work.
Of course, one can be annoyed on Facebook that drivers are increasingly expected to undertake additional work. I can certainly understand this frustration.
However, a task allocation at the loading dock will not change simply because several hundred comments are written under a post.
For that, concrete demands, joint representation of interests, and employees willing to advocate for improvements outside social networks are needed.
Conclusion: Romania has acted; implementation remains decisive
Since July 2026, Romania has had a legal regulation intended to protect professional drivers from being obliged against their will to load and unload in certain commercial freight transports.
This is a change compared to the previous legal situation. However, the law contains exceptions, particularly for specialised transports and with the driver’s explicit written consent.
Whether the regulation will bring the desired improvements in the long term therefore depends not only on the text of the law but also on its practical enforcement.
Spain and Portugal have already taken comparable paths earlier.
Germany, on the other hand, has primarily a contractual starting rule under § 412 HGB (German Commercial Code), which does not contain a general personal loading and unloading ban for employed professional drivers.
For me, the question therefore remains whether we also need a clearer legal separation of tasks here in Germany.
I consider this at least worth discussing. It is not about whether a driver should fundamentally no longer be allowed to touch a pallet truck. It is about additional work not being automatically assigned to employees without clearly regulating their tasks, working hours, and responsibility for them.
Other European countries have shown that such issues can be addressed through legislation. Whether changes also emerge in Germany, however, depends not only on politics but equally on how decisively we drivers jointly represent our interests.
Sources and Legal Basis
- Romania: Law No. 100 of June 24, 2026 – official legal text
- Romanian Parliament: Legislative procedure PL-x 105/2026
- Spain: Royal Legislative Decree 3/2022 – official gazette
- Portugal: Legislative Decree No. 57/2021 – Diário da República
- Germany: § 412 HGB – Loading and Unloading
- Germany: § 106 GewO – Employer’s Right to Give Instructions
