Renewing a transport licence | Traficom
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Transport and Communications Agency

Renewing a transport licence

Changes have been made to the legislation governing the submitting of notifications regarding the transport of goods and passengers. Read more:  Goods and passenger transport licences 2022 (in Finnish)

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  • Step 1

    Renew your existing licence in good time

    Transport licences are renewed on the basis of an application. Renewal applications should be submitted by no later than one month before the existing licence is set to expire. By doing so, the applicant can continue engaging in transport operations on the basis of the licence to be renewed until their application has been processed.

    The application for renewing a goods or passenger transport licence must include a report on the applicant’s financial standing as an attachment. As regards the other licence conditions, the applicant must provide supplements or other evidence upon request.

    When applying for the renewal of a taxi transport licence, the application by itself is usually sufficient, as Traficom receives the information necessary for granting the licence from the information systems of other relevant authorities via API queries.

    The application should be filled as thoroughly as possible, as requests for supplementary information will delay the granting of the licence.

    Applications will be processed in the order of arrival within approximately two weeks of the commencement of proceedings.

  • Step 2

    Make sure that you meet the licence conditions

    The licence conditions include professional competence, Business ID, legal capacity, good repute, being based in Finland and being able to demonstrate your financial standing and the appropriate fulfilment of obligations.

    Traficom does not assess in advance whether the conditions are met, nor does it issue preliminary decisions. The fulfilment of the conditions is only assessed during the processing of the licence application.

    If all the licence conditions are met, the applicant is granted a transport licence.

  • Step 3

    How to demonstrate financial standing

    This section only applies to goods and passenger transport licence applications.

    The holder of a goods or passenger transport licence must at all times be able to meet their financial obligations in the course of the annual accounting year. To this end, the applicant must demonstrate that they have sufficient financial resources for the operations that they intend to engage in based on the licence, i.e. the applicant must demonstrate their financial standing.

    The applicant must demonstrate that they have at their disposal financial resources totalling at least EUR 9,000 when only one vehicle is used and EUR 5,000 for each additional vehicle used.

    The applicant for a light goods transport licence must submit proof of having financial resources that amount at minimum to EUR 1,800 for the first vehicle and at minimum EUR 900 for the following vehicles when the application only concerns a light goods transport licence and the applicant does not already hold any other transport licences.  If a company is applying for a light goods transport licence and it already holds a 'full' goods transport licence and/or a passenger transport licence, the guarantee amount required is EUR 9,000 for the first vehicle (lorry or bus/coach), EUR 5,000 for the following vehicles (lorry or bus/coach) and EUR 900 for the light goods transport licence applied for.

    Financial standing must be demonstrated taking into account all of the applicant’s transport licences, excluding taxi transport licences. In other words, the applicant must demonstrate that they have sufficient financial resources for all the goods and passenger transport licences that they currently posses or are applying for. The guarantee amount of EUR 9,000 for the first vehicle applies only once, not separately for both types of licences.

    Financial standing can be demonstrated with a certificate of the applicant’s financial resources issued by an authorised, meaning KHT, HT or JHT, auditor and/or a surety obligation (bank guarantee) issued by a Finnish credit, financing or insurance institution or a bank deposit (pledge account).

    For more detailed instructions and templates, please see the links below.

    More detailed instructions for demonstrating financial standing (in Finnish)

    Pledge account template (in Finnish)

    Bank guarantee template (in Finnish)

    Demonstrating financial standing with a certificate issued by an auditor (in Finnish)

  • Step 4

    You can renew your transport licence here

    Apply for the renewal of a taxi, goods or passenger transport licence

Community licence for goods transport

The change in legislation does not affect the validity of Community licences for goods transport granted by ELY Centres. The Community licence and the vehicle-specific copies thereof will remain valid until the expiry date marked on the licence document.

Additional vehicle-specific copies of a Community licence are granted based on an application. The copies always expire at the same time with the original Community licence.

A Community licence granted by an ELY Centre is renewed into a new Community licence on the basis of an application. The new licence is granted for a period of 10 years.

Domestic goods transport licence

The change in legislation does not affect the validity of domestic goods transport licences granted by ELY Centres. These licences will remain valid until the expiry date marked on the licence document.

A domestic goods transport licence is renewed on the basis of an application. A domestic goods transport licence is always renewed into a Community licence for goods transport if the applicant has the professional competence required for the Community licence.

If the applicant does not have the professional competence required for the Community licence, the licence is renewed into a domestic goods transport licence. To be granted a domestic goods transport licence, the applicant must have at least one valid domestic goods transport licence at the time of submitting the application.

A holder of a domestic goods transport licence is granted additional licences on the basis of an application. The additional licences are always granted in the form of a Community licence for goods transport and vehicle-specific copies thereof if the applicant has the professional competence required for the Community licence. If the applicant does not have the professional competence required for the Community licence, the additional licences are granted in the form of domestic goods transport licences.

All domestic goods transport licences granted after 1 July 2018 will expire by 1 July 2028 at the latest. Domestic goods transport licence holders who intend to continue operating after July 2028 should acquire the professional competence required for the Community licence in good time.

Tractor transport licence

The Act on Transport Services does not include any provisions on tractor transport licences.

The granting of new tractor transport licences was discontinued on 1 July 2018.

Permits for scheduled services and demand responsive transport permits

The Act on Transport Services does not include any provisions on permits for scheduled services or demand responsive transport permits. In practice, the aforementioned permits were discontinued as a result of the Act on Transport Services entering into effect. Passenger transport licence holders who provide services based on these permits or based on concession or other contracts should contact the competent ELY Centre about how to proceed.

International scheduled bus and coach services between EU Member States

The licences required for international scheduled passenger transport services between EU Member States are granted by Traficom.

Taxi licences granted by ELY Centres remain valid even after the change in legislation that entered into effect on 1 July 2018. However, licences valid until further notice have been converted into fixed-term licences. According to the transitional provisions of the Act on Transport Services, the first licenses that were previously valid until further notice will expire in 2029. Traficom will remind licence holders of the need to renew the licence in good time before the expiry of the licence. In the event that a licence valid until further notice needs to be changed on the basis of an application, the licence will be converted into a fixed-term licence as part of the change decision.

Taxi transport licences were changed from vehicle-specific to company-specific in the new Act, meaning that the numbers of vehicles of individual companies are no longer limited. From now on, a taxi operator only needs a single taxi transport licence.

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