Türkiye amends its TIR rules: three-year vehicle approval certificates and an eight-office cap

What changed

On 4 July 2026 the Ministry of Trade published the Communiqué Amending the General Customs Communiqué (TIR Procedures) (Serial No: 1), issued as TIR Procedures Serial No: 9, in Resmî Gazete No. 33300. It entered into force on the day of publication. The main changes:

• Vehicle approval certificates now run for three years. The certificate issued through the Electronic Vehicle Approval Certificate System (ETOBS), which confirms that a vehicle meets the technical conditions of the TIR Convention, was valid for two years. Its validity is now three years.
• Eight customs offices per TIR transport. The total number of customs offices of departure and destination in one TIR transport may not exceed eight. Customs offices may limit the number of departure (or destination) offices to fewer than seven, but not fewer than three.
• Two ways to go beyond eight. Once the first TIR carnet is terminated at the eighth office, a new carnet can be opened for the rest of the journey; the second carnet may serve up to seven further destination offices, fifteen in total. Under Article 2 of the TIR Convention, both legs must still cross at least one border. Alternatively, for a combination of vehicles or several containers, a separate carnet may be issued for each vehicle or container. In both cases the carnet numbers are cross-referenced in the carnet's "for official use" box and in the TIR/Transit Tracking Programme.
• Late arrival no longer means automatic physical inspection. A vehicle that reaches the destination or exit office after its transit time still faces the fine under Article 241 of Customs Law No. 4458. Physical inspection, however, now follows only where customs consider it necessary in light of other risk factors.

The communiqué also updates authority names to the Regional Directorates of Customs and Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, and replaces Annexes 3, 4 and 10.

Who is affected

TIR carriers authorised in Türkiye, customs brokers and logistics companies handling TIR transit, and importers and exporters whose goods move under TIR carnets, including on road routes between Türkiye, Iran and Central Asia.

What to do now

• Check the expiry dates of your vehicle approval certificates. Renewal can be requested no earlier than thirty days before expiry, and new certificates are issued for three years.
• Plan multi-pickup and multi-drop routes against the eight-office limit, and confirm in advance whether the customs office applies a lower one.
• For routes with more than eight offices, choose at the planning stage between consecutive carnets and one carnet per vehicle or container, and brief drivers and brokers on the cross-reference entries.
• Keep transit times under control: the late-arrival fine has not gone away. Where an accident, breakdown or road closure causes a delay, a document from the competent authority is still the way to avoid it.
• Update internal procedures and forms that still refer to the old authority names or annexes.