Trucking regulation in Georgia rests on the law on road traffic safety and stands on three pillars: seasonal technical requirements, activities regulated through permits, and the duties of the carrier enterprise, which culminate in the registration of the vehicle fleet. If your business is freight transportation — domestic or international — this page shows which rules apply directly to your vehicles and drivers, and what the law requires regarding technical condition, tires, and registration.
Winter tire requirements
The seasonal requirement is precisely defined: when a vehicle moves, during the winter period — from the first of December to the first of March — at a location or road section determined by the government of Georgia, all of its wheels must be equipped with winter tires of appropriate characteristics. For trucks this is particularly significant: given the laden mass, braking distance in winter conditions increases sharply, which is exactly why the law requires all wheels to be equipped. Breaching this requirement is a direct impairment of road safety and becomes an object of supervision.
Which activities require a permit
To ensure road traffic safety, the following activities are allowed only after obtaining a permit, admission, or consent from the authorized body (agency), or in agreement with it — and several of them bear directly on freight transportation:
- developing road traffic organization schemes;
- developing projects for the construction, reconstruction, and repair of roads and road structures;
- placing a kiosk directly next to the road and installing other objects that may worsen visibility or impede the movement of drivers and pedestrians;
- regular passenger transportation on established routes, including within municipal boundaries;
- transportation by passenger car — taxi — in the capital;
- holding mass, sports, and other events on roads;
- the movement of oversized or overloaded vehicles on the road;
- the movement of vehicles carrying hazardous cargo;
- performing any type of work on the road that changes the existing organization of traffic or impedes the movement of road users.
For trucking, the movement of oversized, overloaded, and hazardous-cargo vehicles is especially important: when planning such transportation, the relevant agency permit or agreement must be obtained in advance — otherwise the movement is unlawful.
Duties of the carrier enterprise
An enterprise carrying out the operation of vehicles on the territory of Georgia must: observe the statutory regime of drivers' work and rest; ensure that the technical condition of vehicles conforms to technical requirements and not allow the operation of defective vehicles; not allow the movement of its oversized or overloaded vehicle, or a vehicle carrying hazardous cargo, on the road without agreement with the authorized body; affix identification signs; and observe other requirements established by legislation.
A person officially responsible for admitting vehicles to operation and for their technical condition is prohibited from: releasing into operation a technically defective vehicle whose operation is banned, a vehicle modified in breach of established rules, one that is not duly registered, or one that has not passed periodic technical inspection (save for statutory exceptions); allowing to drive a person who is in a state of alcoholic, narcotic, or psychotropic intoxication, whose state of health does not meet the requirements for driving and endangers traffic, or who lacks the right to drive a vehicle of the given category or subcategory; and releasing a tracked mechanical vehicle for movement on roads with asphalt or cement-concrete surfaces.
Persons responsible for roads and roadworks
The law separately regulates the duties of persons officially responsible for the condition of roads, railway crossings, and other road structures: they must keep them in a condition safe for movement and promptly remove obstacles, and where necessary prohibit or restrict movement on certain sections if use of the road endangers traffic. A person responsible for roadworks must ensure safety at the work site: equip the site — and the road construction machines, materials, and structures parked there — with appropriate road signs, guiding and fencing devices, and in darkness or poor visibility with additional red and yellow signal lights; not allow workers to perform repair or construction work at any time of day without clearly visible, phosphorescent, light-reflective clothing; and upon completion of the works, ensure the safe movement of vehicles and pedestrians.
Registration of vehicles
The legal frame of freight transportation is completed by the accounting of the fleet. Subject to registration, where the circumstances defined by legislation exist, are: a mechanical vehicle (save for those defined by the Minister of Internal Affairs); a trailer intended for towing by such a mechanical vehicle; a sports car; numbered aggregates of the vehicles listed above; auxiliary technical means of agricultural machinery; and vehicles made or modified by individual (homemade) production. Registration results in the issuance of a registration certificate and a state registration number (plate), while agricultural auxiliary machinery receives a technical passport; before registration or upon deregistration, other types of registration signs are issued — a transit number, internal transit, a test number, a deregistration card, or a temporary certificate.
For trucking, the following rule is decisive: at registration, alongside other data, the maximum permissible mass and the unladen mass of the vehicle must be indicated where the vehicle is intended for carrying cargo. These masses are determined by the agency, which likewise carries out registration and deregistration and issues certificates and plates. The Ministry of Defense may register its own vehicles itself, while the detailed procedure for registration and deregistration is established by an order of the Minister of Internal Affairs. The number must be mounted at the special places provided, and the specimens are approved by the government. This registration chain — from declaring the masses to mounting the plate — is precisely what turns a freight fleet into a lawful operator's fleet.