The two current EC Directives on masses and dimensions; EC Directive 92/21/EEC covering M1 category vehicles and EC Directive 97/27/EC covering vehicle categories other than M1, are both due to be repealed by EC Regulation No. 661/2009 concerning "type approval requirements for the general safety of motor vehicles, their trailers and systems, components and separate technical units intended therefor" (more commonly known as the General Safety Regulation or GSR). Therefore, in July 2010, the European Commission began work on developing a single new Implementing Regulation to replace these two Directives and a specific Working Party was set up to assist in this process. Since July 2010, this Working Party has met six times and the European Commission have undertaken numerous consultations with key stakeholders to resolve the main issues relating to this new Regulation.
At the Technical Committee - Motor Vehicles (TCMV) meeting on 13th October 2011, the European Commission presented their first draft of the new Implementing Regulation on masses and dimensions which not only combines the requirements from the two repealed Directives on masses and dimensions, but proposes numerous amendments to the requirements.
Although the European Commission had initially hoped to include harmonised maximum permissible masses for all commercial vehicles in this new Regulation, this proved to be impossible due to the differences in maximum permissible mass values specified in the National legislation of the various Member States. Therefore, for commercial vehicle maximum permissible masses, this new Regulation adopts a similar approach to that used in EC Directive 97/27/EC, i.e. the vehicle is type approved at its maximum "design" masses and its "registration/in service" maximum permissible masses are determined in each Member State by the relevant National Authority.
Although the main requirements in this new draft Regulation are carried over from the repealed Directives, a number of amendments to these requirements are proposed. These proposed amendments include:
- The relocation of the "mass in running order" definition from the Framework Directive (2007/46/EC) to this Regulation and some minor revisions to the wording of this definition.
- The introduction of requirements relating to the "mass of the optional equipment" and the introduction of a specific definition for this term.
- The introduction of a requirement to specify the "actual mass of the vehicle" on the Certificate of Conformity (CoC) for each vehicle and the introduction of a specific definition for this term.
- An increase in the maximum permissible width of M1 category vehicles from 2.50 m to 2.55 m.
- An increase in the maximum permissible height of certain vehicle types. Increased to 4.20 m for double deck coaches, 4.50 m for double deck buses and 4.95 m for all N2 and N3 category vehicles, double deck trailers and semi-trailers.
- The introduction of an amended list of the components that can be excluded from the maximum overall vehicle dimension measurements.