Romania bans forced driver loading and unloading (2026)

Romania has adopted Law No. 100/2026 , which stops consignors, consignees and freight intermediaries from making truck drivers load or unload the goods they carry. Romania's president promulgated the law on 2026-06-24, and the rules take effect on 2026-07-24 for road transport performed with vehicles over 12.5 tonnes maximum authorised mass. For hauliers running Romanian lanes, it ends a routine that many drivers have accepted for years.

What the new law changes

Under Romania's Law No. 100/2026, the core change is a clear separation between the transport service and the physical handling of cargo. Drivers of goods vehicles above 12.5 tonnes may not be compelled by the beneficiary, the supplier, intermediaries or their representatives to carry out loading or unloading. The wording is deliberately broad, so pressure counts and not only a direct order. Conditioning the release or acceptance of goods on a driver doing the unloading falls within scope.

Romania's Law No. 100/2026 also provides narrow exceptions. A company driver may still perform unloading, but only for specialist transport where the nature of the carriage requires it and where the employment contract explicitly allows it. Owner-drivers working on their own account may load or unload if they give written consent and follow the occupational health and safety rules under Law No. 319/2006. Any contract clause that forces a driver to handle cargo outside these cases is null and void by default, as the Romanian freight forwarders association USER set out when the law was promulgated .

What are the penalties, and who enforces them?

Breaches carry administrative fines rather than criminal sanctions. Consignors, consignees or intermediaries who force a driver to load or unload face fines of RON 5,000 to RON 20,000 (roughly EUR 950 to EUR 3,800), while carriers face RON 10,000 to RON 20,000 (roughly EUR 1,900 to EUR 3,800) if they write non-compliant handling duties into their contracts or transport orders, according to trans.info . Enforcement falls to Romania's Labour Inspectorate and ISCTR, the State Inspectorate for Road Transport Control.

For carriers, the practical takeaway is documentary. Contracts and transport orders should be reviewed now, and drivers need a simple way to record what happened at the bay. A connected driver app and reliable GPS tracking both help evidence waiting times and disputed handling requests.

Part of a wider European trend

Romania is following a path already taken elsewhere in the EU. Portugal has restricted driver handling since 2021, and Spain banned drivers of vehicles over 7.5 tonnes from loading and unloading from 2022-09-02, with fines starting at EUR 4,001 and rising to EUR 18,000 for a repeat breach within twelve months, according to the IRU, the International Road Transport Union, which has tracked this regulatory trend across the bloc. The direction of travel across the EU is consistent: regulators are drawing a firmer line between driving and warehouse work and placing responsibility for cargo handling on the party that organises it.

International operators moving goods through Romania should treat 2026-07-24 as a hard deadline and check their terms and site practices before then. Our FAQ covers common cross-border compliance questions.

If you are planning Romanian lanes and want your contracts checked against the new rules before the 2026-07-24 deadline, request a compliance check and our team will help you set the operation up correctly.