Transport professions

The wide variety of transport professions, and the fact that they can be described from different points of view, explain the difficulty of constructing a simple presentation. But complexity is part of economic reality, and it's possible to be in the transport business without being a carrier, or not be a carrier and still belong to the transport professions...

A fundamental distinction must be made from the outset between own-account transport ("private" transport) and transport for hire or reward ("public" transport).

Own-account carriers are industrialists or traders who, in the course of their main business, use appropriate personnel and vehicles to move the goods involved in their professional activity. Transporters for hire or reward are transport professionals who move goods on behalf of their customers.

This traditional distinction, which applies not only to road haulage but also to inland waterway and maritime transport, seems clear-cut. In reality, however, the boundary between the two categories is sometimes difficult to draw, especially as the legislation does not provide a precise definition of own-account transport. However, the authorities and case law accept that, for an operation to be considered as own-account transport, three conditions must be met:

• the vehicle must be company-owned or covered by a long-term leasing contract;

• there is a relationship between the company's activity and the goods it transports;

• the company's main activity must be other than transport.

It should be noted that the distinction between own-account transport and transport for hire or reward does not refer to whether the transport is free of charge or charged for; in practice, however, it can be accepted that in the case of transport for hire or reward, the customer pays for the service.

The distinction between own-account and third-party activities is not confined to transport in the strict sense of the term (i.e. the physical movement of goods). All the services provided by the transport professions (organization of transport chains, warehousing and logistics services, etc.) can also be carried out on own account.

In this dossier, we'll only be looking at those who perform services on behalf of others.

The sheer diversity of transport-related activities carried out by professionals calls for an effort to classify them, to divide them into categories...