Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 (repealed)Show full title

Section 1 General provisions

Article 670

For the purposes of this Chapter:

(a)

office of entry means: the customs office via which goods accompanied by an ATA carnet enter the customs territory of the Community;

(b)

office of exit means: the customs office via which goods accompanied by an ATA carnet leave the customs territory of the Community;

(c)

means of transport means: any means used for the transport of persons or goods. The term covers spare parts and normal accessories and equipment, including the gear used to stow, secure or protect goods which is imported with the means of transport;

(d)

person established outside the customs territory of the Community means: a natural person normally resident outside the customs territory of the community or a legal person having a registered place of business outside that territory;

(e)

commercial use means: the use of a means of transport for the transport of persons for remuneration or the industrial or commercial transport of goods, whether or not for remuneration;

(f)

private use means: the use of a means of transport exclusively for personal purposes by the person concerned, excluding commercial use;

(g)

container means: an article of transport equipment (lift-van, movable tank, demountable body or other similar structure):

• fully or partially enclosed to constitute a compartment intended for containing goods,

• of a permanent character and accordingly strong enough to be suitable for repeated use,

• specially designed to facilitate the carriage of goods, by one or more modes of transport, without intermediate reloading,

• designed for ready handling, particularly when being transferred from one mode of transport to another,

• designed to be easy to fill and to empty, and having an internal volume of one cubic metre or more.

Platform flats shall be treated as containers.

The term container shall include the accessories and equipment of the container, appropriate for the type concerned, provided they are transported with the container. The term container shall not include vehicles, accessories or spare parts of vehicles, packaging or pallets.

By way of derogation from the final indent, the term container shall apply to containers used for air transport having an internal volume of less than one cubic metre;

(h)

transport under customs seal means: the use of a container to transport goods which are identified by the sealing of the container;

(i)

demountable body means: a loading compartment which has no independent means of movement and is specifically designed to be transported on a road vehicle, the chassis of such vehicle and the lower bodywork frame being specially designed for that purpose. This definition also covers movable cases which form loading compartments specifically designed for combined transport;

(j)

partially enclosed containers means: equipment generally consisting of a floor and a superstructure marking off a loading space equivalent to that of a closed container; the superstructure is generally made up of metal members forming the frame of a container; containers of this type may also comprise one or more lateral or frontal walls; in some cases there is only a roof attached to the floor by uprights; this type of container is used in particular for the carriage of bulky goods (motor cars, for example);

(k)

platform flats means: loading platforms without a superstructure, or with partial superstructure only, of the same length and width as containers and possessing top and bottom corner fittings located on the side of the platform to enable the same anchoring and lifting devices to be used as for containers;

(l)

accessories and equipment of the container means: in particular the following devices, even if they are removable:

(i)

equipment for controlling, modifying or maintaining the temperature inside the container;

(ii)

small appliances, such as temperature or impact recorders, designed to indicate or record variations in environmental conditions and impact;

(iii)

internal partitions, pallets, shelves, supports, hooks and similar devices used for stowing goods.

(m)

pallet means: a device on the deck of which a quantity of goods can be assembled to form a unit load for the purpose of transporting it, or of handling or stacking it with the assistance of mechanical appliances. This device is made up of two decks separated by bearers, or of a single deck supported by feet, or of a special deck designed for air transport; its overall height is reduced to the minimum compatible with handling by means of fork lift trucks or pallet trucks; it may or may not have a superstructure;

(n)

operator of a container or pallet means: the person who, whether or not its owner, has effective control of its movements;

(o)

user of the procedure for a container or pallet means: the operator of a container or pallet or his representative;

(p)

internal traffic means: the carriage of persons or goods picked up or loaded in the customs territory of the Community for setting down or unloading at a place within that territory.