Non-EU truck drivers in France: the driver attestation issued by the DREAL

A French haulier employing a driver who is not an EEA national must hold a driver attestation for that person. The document comes from the order of 11 March 2003 and is described in the service-public sheet R14164. The company applies to the regional prefect, and the file is handled by the DREAL. It replaces neither the work authorisation nor the residence permit.

What the attestation proves, and when it is required

The driver attestation certifies one thing: that a driver who is not an EEA national is lawfully employed by the transport undertaking holding it, under the rules that govern driver training and employment. It is an accessory of the community licence for the carriage of goods by road, so it follows the same perimeter. In practice it is required for international transport and for cabotage, meaning operations carried out inside another member state. A driver used only on domestic runs within France falls outside the EU regulation that the attestation rests on.

The document names the driver and belongs to the company, not to him. A change of employer does not transfer it; the new employer files again. The driver must be able to produce the attestation at a roadside check, alongside the certified copy of the community licence.

Who handles the file, and on which form

The application is made by the company, never by the driver. It goes to the regional prefect, and the road transport service in the region handles it: the DREAL in most regions, the DRIEAT in Île-de-France, the DEAL in the overseas departments. Service-public sheet R14164 names the core document, form Cerfa 12726*02, accompanied by its guidance notice 51139, which lists the evidence expected on the employment relationship and on the driver's professional qualification.

The schedule that matters to an employer is not the attestation's own. It arrives at the end of the chain, once the driver already holds a right to work and a right to reside. A company that files the Cerfa before it has an enforceable contract and a valid permit gets the file back, and the delay is not the DREAL's.

The two chains do not substitute for each other

This is the most common error in non-EU driver recruitment: treating the attestation as the document that permits work. It is not. It records an employment situation that is already lawful. Work authorisation sits with the DREETS, residence with the consulate and the prefecture, and those decisions condition the attestation rather than the reverse. The employment filing mechanics are set out in the introduction procedure for a foreign employee, and the pre-hire checks in the right to work check before the prefecture.

The rules around driving occupations keep moving, and not always towards opening. Decree number 2026-764 of 5 August 2026, published in the Journal officiel, removed access through recognition of professional experience for private hire drivers and for drivers of two and three wheeled motor vehicles. That measure does not cover road haulage, but it marks the direction: experience gained abroad is increasingly refused as a substitute for a formal qualification, and an employer building a corridor on uncertified driving years is carrying a risk.

The direct cost of the attestation is small next to the rest of the file. The real spend in a driver corridor sits in the employer tax due on the first hire of a foreign worker, in the translation of licences and qualification certificates, and in the weeks a vehicle stands without an assigned driver.

For a haulier the planning rule states itself: the driver attestation is the last lock, never the first. Build the schedule backwards from the work authorisation decision, then the consular appointment, and place the DREAL application on top of that. Talk to a consultant.