Heavy vehicle categories
For goods transport, category N2 covers vehicles with a gross mass between 3.5 and 12 tonnes, and category N3 those above 12 tonnes — rigids as well as tractor units.
For passenger transport, category M2 means vehicles with more than eight seats and a mass up to 5 tonnes, and category M3 those above: coaches and buses.
Multi-stage approval is the rule
A truck leaves the manufacturer as a chassis cab. A bodybuilder then adds a tipper, a box, a crane, a tail lift, a tank or a flatbed. The vehicle is approved in stages, and the completed vehicle Certificate of Conformity describes the whole.
Before ordering, identify the last party involved: its plate is usually riveted next to the manufacturer’s, on the door pillar or the chassis.
Importing a used truck within Europe
The used truck market is thoroughly European: many French vehicles come from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany or Spain. Depending on the case, the file adds the COC, the heavy-vehicle roadworthiness test, tax clearance and a fitting certificate for certain bodies.
Truck manufacturers’ lead times are generally longer than car manufacturers’: their type-approval departments handle fewer requests and often work in batches.
Ordering as a company
Most of these orders are professional. You can order in your company name with an intra-community VAT number: outside France the invoice is then issued under the reverse charge. For regular volumes, the business area gives access to batch ordering and monthly invoicing.