Age closes the two certificates separately. The ATP certificate counts the year the equipment was made: under Article 12(8) of the regulation, after 15 years heavily insulated equipment is treated as normally insulated, and normally insulated equipment more than 15 years past its manufacture date is no longer certified under ATP. The Perishable Food Transport Certificate, which covers domestic journeys only, goes to equipment not more than 15 years past manufacture (Article 19(1)).
There is a way out beside the closed door. A second paragraph added to Article 19 by the Official Gazette of 21 February 2025 says that where a vehicle is past 15 model years and so cannot be issued a Perishable Food Transport Certificate, replacing its body with an ATP-compliant body moves certification onto the ATP rules, and the vehicle goes on carrying perishable food.
Anyone weighing the delivery side before committing to a new body can start from the comparison on our refrigerated vehicle alternative page.
The test is the insulation of the body: under ATP Annex 1, a normally insulated (IN) body has a K coefficient of at most 0.70 and a heavily insulated (IR) body at most 0.40 W/m²·°C. The ATP count runs from the year the body was made, so a new body starts from zero. A body is treated as unused if the application is made within 6 months of registration, and then no physical inspection is needed; after that it counts as second-hand and goes through periodic inspection at first certification (Article 14). For a body made abroad, an ATP type test report, the ATP certificate of the country of manufacture and, for series production, the manufacturer's declaration are required (Article 17).
