What SSTPA certification actually requires
SSTPA stands for Safe and Secure Truck Parking Area. The rules sit in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1012, adopted on 7 April 2022 to fill in Article 8a(2) of the drivers' hours regulation, 561/2006. A site earns the label by meeting every minimum service standard in Annex I Section A and every standard of one security level in Section B. There is one service level and four security levels, not four of each, and the difference between Bronze and Platinum is larger than the word levels suggests.
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One service standard, four security levels
The structure is worth getting right, because it is widely misreported. Article 1 of the regulation sets two conditions, and both must hold. The site meets all the minimum service standards listed in Annex I Section A, which are the same for everyone. Then it meets all the standards of one security level from Section B, and the level it holds is the level it can advertise. So a Gold site and a Bronze site offer identical showers, food and internet; what separates them is the fence, the cameras and who is watching. The four levels are named in the regulation itself as Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum, set out in Tables 2 to 5. Each is cumulative: Silver assumes Bronze, Gold assumes Silver, Platinum assumes Gold.
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- regulation 2022/1012
What each level buys a driver
Bronze is a boundary you can see rather than one that stops anybody: the regulation asks for a visual deterrent marked on the ground and 15 Lux of lighting. Read it as a defined, lit area, not a fortress. Silver introduces a physical deterrent at the perimeter, raises lighting to 20 Lux, adds continuous video coverage, and puts barriers with voice intercom and ticketing on the entry, plus assistance reachable around the clock. Gold is where the specification turns serious: a 1.8 metre physical barrier with a metre of clear ground beside it, perimeter camera coverage with no blank spots, licence plate recognition, pedestrian turnstiles at least 1.80 metres high, and a business continuity plan. Gold also requires that the site's parking area management system be prepared for DATEX II data transfer, which is what eventually makes a certified site visible in navigation apps. Platinum assumes all of that and adds intent: a continuous barrier with climb-over deterrents and protection against deliberate damage, intrusion and over-climbing alarms, real-time monitoring of every entry and exit including pedestrian points, and a site either manned or video-controlled 24/7, with CCTV watched remotely by an external alarm receiving centre whenever staff are not on site. On the way out, staff check the plate against the identifier recorded on entry, backed by a two-step verification system. That last one is the anti-theft measure that matters most: it makes driving out in somebody else's truck a problem.
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The services every certified site must have
Annex I Section A is the floor, identical at every level, and it reads like a list written by people who had spent nights in truck parks. Warm-water showers, separated by sex, with free hand soap. Daily cleaning, with the cleaning schedule displayed where drivers can see it. Snacks and drinks available 24 hours a day, and somewhere to sit and eat them. Free internet access. Sockets for personal use. Emergency contact details posted in the national language and in English, with pictograms so they work regardless of either. One item carries a deadline rather than a description: certified sites must provide electric power for refrigerated vehicles by 31 December 2026, which for a reefer driver is the difference between a legal rest and running the unit all night.
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How a site earns the label, and how it loses it
Annex II covers the audit machinery, and it is stricter than most voluntary schemes. Certification bodies need group accreditation to ISO 17021. Auditors need a contract with the body, training on the current Annex I standards covering both theory and practice, and working English alongside the local language. Audits are physical: somebody walks the site. A certificate lasts three years, and the operator has to request re-audit three months before it expires. An extension of up to six months is possible where circumstances could not be anticipated, renewable once, with the reasons published. At least one unannounced audit falls inside every certificate period, which is the clause that stops a site performing well on one known day a year. Where an audit finds a shortfall, the remedy is assessed within four weeks; failure to fix it means revocation, and a revoked operator must strip every reference to the Union standards from its own website. Appeals follow the ISO 17021 route. Certification bodies must also run an online complaint mechanism, and certified sites must display on site how to use it, so a driver who finds the showers cold has somewhere to report it that is not the operator.
| Rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Certificate validity | 3 years |
| Re-audit request | 3 months before expiry |
| Unanticipated-circumstances extension | Up to 6 months, renewable once |
| Unannounced audits | At least one per certificate period |
| Remedy assessment after a finding | Within 4 weeks |
| Failure to remedy | Revocation, all references removed |
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Why certified sites are hard to find
The regulation's own recitals explain the demand side plainly. Around 75% of cargo-crime incidents happen while a heavy goods vehicle is parked somewhere unsecure, and against an estimated need of 400,000 spaces a night, roughly 7,000 secure spaces existed across the Union. That gap is the reason the standard exists, and also the reason a certified site is often a detour rather than the next exit. The Commission set itself a review of the rules no later than 7 April 2026. Where the data goes is the part that reaches a driver's phone. Static truck parking data is published in DATEX II format through the European Access Point for Truck Parking Data, the ETPA, which runs under the ITS Directive 2010/40/EU and Delegated Regulation (EU) 885/2013. That is the feed behind the capacity and security figures on a Jornee stop card, which is why those cards name their source and vintage rather than presenting a number as current truth. Jornee ranks parking on your corridor by the detour minutes it costs, so a certified site ten minutes off the route can be compared against an unsecured apron on it, with the load you are carrying deciding which wins.
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