Decree Law No. 73/2025 introduced new rules on waiting times for loading and unloading within the road transport of goods field, providing for a 90-minute allowance, beyond which compensation is due; it also provided for an obligation to pay compensation for exceeding the agreed time for loading and unloading operations.

These regulations have led to conflicting interpretations, advocated by many categories according to their respective and different interests.

It was therefore necessary for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport to intervene to clarify the situation. This intervention consisted in the issuance of a specific Circular dated 4 November 2025, containing clarifications on the scope of Article 4 of Decree Law No. 73/2025, which amended the provision of Article 6 bis of Legislative Decree No. 286/2005. More specifically, the clarifications concerned (a) exemptions and (b) compensation.

(a) With regard to exemptions, it was specified that the mandatory waiting time is 90 minutes, which covers waiting times for loading and unloading, but not the duration of these operations. Furthermore, the 90-minute allowance period shall not apply to the performance of the operations in question, the duration of which (at the end of which the obligation to pay compensation shall arise) shall be agreed contractually.

(b) With regard to compensation, it has been stated that it is payable to the carrier at a rate of EUR 100 per hour, even if the 90-minute waiting allowance has been exceeded by less than a full hour. A similar rule applies also to the exceeding, even by less than an hour, of the agreed times for loading and unloading.

The above provisions shall not find application, of course, if the delay is attributable to the carrier.

In light of the above and the complex nature of the operations involved, the Ministry has also provided specific operational recommendations related to the terms and conditions of contracts concluded between operators in this field. The solution pointed out is therefore to define – as precisely as possible – the location of the operations, the time at which they have to be carried out, their duration, the persons who will be held responsible for them, the methods of access for the vehicles involved, and the ways in which all these provisions can be certified (bearing in mind that arrival times can also be proven digitally by the carrier).

In determining these aspects, it will always be necessary to comply with the limits imposed by law and, in particular, by Article 1322 of the Civil Code and Legislative Decree No. 286/2005.

Alessandro Poggi
alessandro.poggi@mordiglia.it