SENT and Wialon integration: how to comply with the law in Poland

In many countries of the world, the government needs to control certain types of goods and products that can be subject to illegal trade, fraud, or tax evasion. In 2018, Poland brought in a new update on such a law.

Read on to know how you and your end-users are now able to comply with it using Wialon.

Background

On 15 June 2018, In Poland, the Sejm (the larger lower house of the parliament) passed amendments to the Act on the monitoring of road transport of goods (parliamentary paper no. 1794, the “amendments”), which describes the new obligations of carriers.

It says that the carriers should forward the location data for the whole route of the vehicles with sensitive goods to the governmental SENT platform. The list includes fuel products, alcohol-containing goods, tobacco, and other goods. 

The obligation applies to both domestic and foreign companies that transport sensitive goods, and to shipments that start on the territory of the Republic of Poland and to those in transit through Poland as well. The SENT rules are working only on the Poland territory. The data is transmitted to SENT only if a vehicle is within the borders of the country.

SENT has been out there for a while, since 2017, and this is not the first update it gets along with the new laws. The platform was created by the Polish government as a solution for VAT fraud issue. 

The law came into effect on October 1, 2018. The amendments provided for a grace period until January 1, 2019, during which neither carriers nor drivers were penalized for a failure to fulfill their duties. January 1, 2019, was the day when a new law came into effect in its full. Violation of this law means a €5,000 fee now.

Wialon and SENT

Wialon has taken care of the partner community and performed the integration with the Polish SENT platform. 

According to the new rules, if a device used for sending geolocation information (a GPS tracking device or a phone/tablet with a SENT mobile app) is out of service for more than one hour, the driver will be required to immediately stop the vehicle in the nearest parking lot or lay-by. Further movement is allowed only if the device is back on track again, or if the goods were re-loaded to a vehicle with a correctly working device.

Performing data transmission to SENT via Wialon means that a carrier doesn’t need to install the offered mobile application, which may be inconvenient in some situations (for example, in case of battery or smartphone issues, which will cause the driver to stop and seek a solution, or if you’re not sure that the drivers will be diligent about keeping the app up and running). 

Everything needed now is a GPS device connected to Wialon. Drivers won’t be distracted with the need to work with the mobile application, which means a lot for road safety and meeting shipment deadlines.

Note: to make sure that you comply with the 1-hour rule, use Wialon notifications to let you or the carrier know when any issues appear (for example, if the device carrying the sensitive goods hasn’t been sending the info for 30 minutes).

How it works for Wialon partners and carriers

We've crafted an in-depth guide that walks you through the configuration process for transmitting unit location data from Wialon to the SENT system. This entails specific actions from both the operator (the Wialon partner) and the carrier (the end-user). 

Dive into the specifics by exploring the guide in the Wialon help center.

For many businesses, including logistics companies, the presence of such an integration is the main factor while choosing a platform for satellite monitoring. We do believe that the new feature will help our partners better satisfy the needs of the clients in the region.

Should you have any other questions on working with SENT, please contact your Wialon manager, or send a note to partners@wialon.com.