Bratislava: New tachograph rules reached hundreds of thousands of vans on 1 July 2026, when the European Union extended its driving and rest-time regime to light commercial vehicles above 2.5 tonnes used in cross-border freight and cabotage. The European Labour Authority, which coordinates enforcement, spent months warning operators that the grace period had ended.

Until now, the tachograph rules sat squarely with trucks. The final stage of the Mobility Package I, agreed in 2020, closes that gap. From July, any van or van-and-trailer combination over 2.5 tonnes that carries goods for hire across a border, or runs cabotage trips inside another member state, must carry a smart tachograph and follow the same limits as heavy lorries.

That change bites hardest for small hauliers and courier fleets. Drivers now face the nine-hour daily driving limit, mandatory daily and weekly rest, and the duty to keep records ready for checks. Operators must fit a second-generation smart tachograph, the version regulators call G2V2, and train staff to use it correctly.

The Commission set out the staged timetable years ago, and it fixed the July date from the start. Brussels argues the extension levels a field that let light vans undercut trucks on long international runs while escaping the rules that govern fatigue and fair competition. The Commission’s mobility and transport department frames the move as road safety and fair-market policy in one.

Not every van falls in scope. Purely national trips stay outside the tachograph rules, and vehicles that move a company’s own goods, rather than freight for hire, keep their exemption in the 2.5 to 3.5 tonne band. Enforcement bodies promise checks at borders and inland, with fines for missing or misused devices.

Industry groups warn of a scramble. The road transport organisation IRU says many small operators learned late that the rules would touch them, and device supply tightened as the deadline passed. Retrofitting a van costs time and money that thin-margin couriers can ill afford.

National regulators have moved to match the shift. Enforcement teams in Germany, France and Poland, three of the busiest transit routes, have flagged early roadside checks, and penalties can climb into the thousands of euros for a van caught without a working device. Trade bodies expect a wave of last-minute retrofits through the autumn as operators race to comply.

For Europe’s freight market, the shift ends a lighter-touch era for vans. The tachograph rules now follow goods across the map, and the Union is betting that tighter oversight buys safer roads and steadier competition, even as the smallest hauliers absorb the cost.