Keywords Summary
Transport - Road transport - Social legislation - Exemptions - Carriage of passengers on regular services - Concept - Present case
(Council Regulations Nos 3820/85, Arts. 1(7) and 4(3) and 684/92, Arts. 2(1) and 21(2))
It follows from Article 1 (7) of Regulation No 3820/85, on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport, in conjunction with Articles 21 (2) and 2 (1) of Regulation No 684/92 on common rules for the international carriage of passengers by coach and bus, that a service is `regular’, for the purposes of the exempting provision in Article 4 (3) of Regulation No 3820/85, where passengers are conveyed at specified intervals along specified routes and, in the case of special regular services, where those passengers belong to specified categories.
In that connection, the conditions as to provision of the service at specified intervals along a specified route require the frequency of the service to be specified with precision and to be characterised by a degree of regularity, and also that there must be a defined route along which passengers may be taken up and set down at predetermined stopping points. `Specified categories of passengers’ must be understood as referring to passengers sharing the same status, such as workers, school pupils, students and soldiers.
A passenger transport service, supplied on a number of occasions pursuant to a block reservation made by a tour operator and providing for a single journey from an airport to a hotel with a stop, on occasions, at a tourist attraction, where the precise route to be taken is not predetermined, does not therefore constitute a regular service, as defined above.