How to re-register a UK lorry in Bulgaria
Recently we have established MH Think Ltd., a UK road transport consultancy, providing re-registration services to UK lorries in Bulgaria. We also provide obtaining EU road transport O-licence, issued from Bulgaria.
Registration of a UK lorry in Bulgaria
European regulation restricts registration of vehicles only to the location where their owner is registered. This means that you can't have a a lorry registered on your UK company name and simultaneously have Bulgarian registration plates. Therefore the obvious way to have the task accomplished is to register a Bulgarian company and transfer the lorry to it.
Registration of a Bulgarian company is done in about 4-5 days. After that all you need to do is bring the lorry to Bulgaria. The procedure for lorry re-registration is as follows:
- Bringing the lorry to the Traffic Police garage;
- Bringing the lorry to a certified Tachograph garage;
- Bringing the lorry to a certified MOT garage;
Point #1 takes most of the time, as the lorry need to be checked for a valid VIN number and (if present) engine number. These checks are done because of the increased vehicle theft within EU. The traffic police technicians check for the VIN, engraved on the chassis itself and not on the metal plate, nailed to the cabin. As you can guess this process involves lifting up the cabin.
What to check before you bring your lorry to Bulgaria
It is very important that you check if your lorry's VIN number is clearly visible on the chassis. Make sure you find where it is located and remove any rust (being careful not to erase it). Again, the VIN, showed on the metal plate on the cabin is not good enough for the Bulgarian Traffic Police.
If your lorry registration certificate doesn't include Euro emissions certificate (e.g. Euro 3, Euro 4 etc.), you have to get one from your lorry manufacturer. This is very important if you want to pay low vehicle tax. The city council lowers the vehicle tax if there is Euro 3 or better certification of the lorry.
We at MH Legal and MH Think are well aware of the full procedure for re-registration foreign (e.g. UK) lorries in Bulgaria and are providing all preliminary information to the hauliers before they bring their trucks to Bulgaria. We are continuing to fill our registered trucks portfolio with more lorries under Bulgarian plates.
If you are interested in obtaining EU Operators licence from Bulgaria and operating your UK lorries under this licence, call us on 0044 20 351 46727, email us at [email protected] Alternatively, you can use the contact form.