An inspection is an event you can prepare for. The ATP roadside inspection guide published by Turkey's Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure carries, in its annexes, the checklist used on domestic routes as a set of numbered lines.
The sections of the list. The list has three parts. The general section covers the place of the check, date, time, country of registration, plate, carrier company and address, driver, consignor and consignee details, the company authorisation document or vehicle card, and the delivery note.
The second part establishes what is required: what goods are being carried, whether they fall under ATP, whether the carriage is international, and which document is needed.
The third part interrogates the document: is there an ATP certificate or a domestic perishable-goods carriage document, its number, its expiry date, its marking class, and whether that class is adequate for the goods being carried.
What has to be in the vehicle
The guide collects this under its own heading: for carriage within the scope of ATP, the vehicle must carry the ATP certificate, and the equipment must bear the ATP distinguishing mark and the ATP plate. The certificate may be an original or a photocopy.
That list is the most concrete item of paperwork in any discussion of keeping a cold chain in traffic.
Line nineteen is the one that gets argued about
Line 19 of the checklist asks for the marking class and gives examples such as IN, IR, FNA, FRC, FRB along with T-FnA and T-FrC. Line 20 then asks whether that class meets the requirement. The inspector compares the two against the list of foodstuffs and marking classes on the reverse page.
A valid certificate is therefore not enough; the class on the certificate has to match the goods. Carrying ice cream on a valid FNA certificate means a vehicle that has paperwork but does not qualify.
What the codes beginning with T are
The guide states that the foods which may be carried in vehicles holding a domestic perishable-goods carriage document are determined by the ATP marking that corresponds to the domestic marking. The example given is that products carried under FRC may also be carried under T-FrC. The T prefix appears because the domestic document is a national one.
A sense of the scale of enforcement. For comparison the guide gives figures from other countries. Based on information from UNECE, Italy carried out 44,273 ATP roadside inspections in 2018. That is the scale in countries where the check is routine rather than exceptional.
A two-minute check before departure
- Is the certificate in the vehicle, and has its expiry month passed
- Does the marking class on the plate match the regime of today's load
- Does the description of goods on the delivery note contradict the certificate
