Transport and Logistics Licensing: LATRA, TASAC and Who Regulates What

This page is the transport and logistics licensing operating file: which regulator issues the authority for each movement, and in what order the desks will take them. It is not a freight-rate guide and not a tariff classification manual.

• Aircraft, hire cars and tourist vehicles: aviation and tourist transport approvals
• Cargo that carries its own licence: the cashew export operating guide
• Paying for the goods before you move them: the crop file before payment
• A board sitting above the haulier: coffee buying, processing and export licences

As at 14 September 2026. Registration classes are published at tasac.go.tz and licence classes at latra.go.tz; this file rests on the Transport Licensing Act Cap. 317, the Land Transport Regulatory Authority Act, 2019, the Tanzania Shipping Agencies Act, Cap. 415, and the Business Licensing Act Cap. 208.

The object clause is not the licence

BRELA registers the company and its objects under the Companies Act Cap. 212. A clause reading “transport, logistics and supply chain services” records what the company may lawfully do once licensed. It confers no right to move another person’s cargo for reward, to act for a vessel in port, or to lodge a customs entry. Three statutes confer those rights, each with its own applicant test, renewal cycle and regulator.

The trade licence is a fourth layer, not a substitute: Class A at the ministry responsible for trade through BRELA’s online system, Class B at the local government authority for the premises. One describing general commerce will not move LATRA to issue a goods licence, and TASAC will not register a firm whose licensed activity names something else.

Which movement belongs to which desk

Citizenship is screened before anything is drafted

The clearing and forwarding class is closed. Every shareholder of the applicant company must be a Tanzanian citizen, and identity documents are checked at registration. It is not a percentage to be negotiated down. GN No. 487A of 2025, published on 28 July 2025, restates the activities reserved for citizens under the trade-licensing law; freight forwarding sits on that list.

Own-account haulage is a different application from third-party agency. A foreign-owned manufacturer running lorries for its own consignments approaches LATRA about its fleet; a firm clearing other people’s containers approaches a class it cannot enter at all with a non-citizen on the register. Read the class before subscribing shares.

LATRA licenses vehicles and services, not companies

The 2019 statute creating the Authority split the old surface-and-marine regulator, leaving land with LATRA and the sea with TASAC. Its road authorities are not company-wide permissions. A goods licence attaches to identified vehicles and the cargo classes they may carry; a passenger road service licence attaches to a route and a timetable, at fares the Authority publishes rather than the operator.

Before the application is looked at, the vehicle must exist on paper: a registration card in the applicant’s name from TRA, a current inspection, and third-party cover from an insurer licensed by TIRA. Drivers hold the class of driving licence the vehicle demands. Adding a lorry in month seven is an amendment, not a purchase.

TASAC registers seven classes on the water side

Cap. 415 makes the Corporation both the maritime regulator and the registrar of every business that touches a ship or a container. Each class has its own regulations:

• Shipping agency: GN No. 339 of 2018, as amended
• Clearing and forwarding agents: GN No. 340 of 2018
• Cargo consolidators and de-consolidators: GN No. 337 of 2018
• Miscellaneous port services: GN No. 343 of 2018
• Ship tallying: GN No. 380 of 2023
• Shippers registration: GN No. 382 of 2023
• Verified gross mass of a laden container: Merchant Shipping Regulations, GN No. 197 of 2016

Applications for the agency class open in an announced window, with the closing date in a public notice; missing it costs a season. Registration runs annually, so a firm that both consolidates and clears registers twice and renews on two dates.

Mainland and Zanzibar are not one transport market

Land transport and trade licensing are outside the Union list. LATRA’s writ stops at the Mainland: road services on Unguja and Pemba are licensed under the islands’ own transport law, the trade licence is issued there, and non-Union taxes belong to the Zanzibar Revenue Authority. An agent working the island ports registers with the Zanzibar Maritime Authority.

Customs and excise are Union matters, so a licence issued by TRA covers a declaration lodged on either side of the channel. Value added tax is not: the Mainland charges 18% under the VAT Act Cap. 148 and Zanzibar 15% under its own Act, so a carrier invoicing both markets holds two VAT registrations against a single taxpayer number.

The order the desks take

1. Fix the activity, then the shareholding: screen the class against the reserved list before a share is subscribed.
2. Incorporate and file beneficial ownership at BRELA, with objects matching the class you will apply for.
3. Register for tax: taxpayer number, VAT where turnover crosses the threshold, payroll registration for drivers.
4. Take the trade licence for the activity and the premises; every sector desk asks to see it.
5. Put the assets on paper: registration cards, inspections and insurance for a road fleet; office, yard and qualified staff for a port class.
6. Apply to the sector regulator: LATRA for carriage, TASAC for the port and agency classes, TRA Customs for the declarant licence.
7. Diary each renewal separately: the registration, the sector licence and the trade licence rarely fall in the same month.

The papers each desk opens

Certificate of incorporation, memorandum and articles, and the beneficial-ownership return. Taxpayer identification certificate, the VAT certificate where registered, and tax clearance for renewals. The current trade licence. For road: a fleet list with chassis and registration numbers, registration cards, inspection certificates and motor insurance cover notes. For the water side: lease or title for office and yard, qualification certificates for the staff each class specifies, and shareholder identity documents proving citizenship on the closed classes.

A customs agent additionally lodges TRA’s application form, posts a security bond of TZS 100,000,000 and keeps qualified declaration staff on the payroll. Those conditions belong to the declarant licence, not to the registration preceding it.

Illustrative arithmetic: a year of mixed carriage

A Dar es Salaam haulier bills TZS 900,000,000 in its first full year: TZS 600,000,000 on domestic legs for resident manufacturers, TZS 300,000,000 on transit haulage to Kigali. Output tax on the domestic legs at 18% is TZS 108,000,000. The transit legs are zero-rated as carriage to a destination outside the country, so they add no output tax while the input tax behind them stays claimable.

Service levy under the Local Government Finance Act Cap. 290, at 0.3% of turnover, is TZS 2,700,000 to the council hosting the yard. Resident customers withhold 5% on the service fee under the Income Tax Act Cap. 332: TZS 30,000,000, creditable against the year’s liability. Corporate tax runs at 30% of chargeable income, with provisional instalments due on the last day of the third, sixth, ninth and twelfth months of the accounting period. Illustrative arithmetic, not a quotation; confirm the live schedule on tra.go.tz.

Where this file stalls

• An object clause produced at the port gate as though it were an authority
• A forwarding application refused on citizenship after the fees are paid
• Lorries bought and insured before anyone asked which licence class covers that cargo
• An agency application lodged after the closing date in the public notice
• A trade licence naming general commerce while the sector form names freight forwarding
• Three renewal dates diarised as one, so the fleet runs a fortnight unlicensed

What moved recently

The Corporation’s exclusive hold over clearing specified cargo categories has narrowed since the 2017 Act; the current exclusive list is published rather than inferred, so read it before quoting on government, mineral or petroleum consignments. Berth operations at Dar es Salaam passed to a concession operator under the 2023 intergovernmental agreement with the United Arab Emirates, and the second container terminal to a further concession in 2024. Both changed gate booking and terminal handling invoices, not who must hold a registration to stand at the gate.

Weight enforcement follows the East African Community Vehicle Load Control Act, 2016, capping a combination at 56 tonnes gross across the partner states. Tallying and shipper registration became distinct classes under their 2023 regulations, catching firms performing both without either.

Mandate-holders this file does not replace

LATRA owns the road and railway service licence and the regulated fare. TASAC owns registration of the agency and port classes. TRA owns the declarant licence, the bond, the TANCIS entry, vehicle registration and every tax named here. TANROADS owns the weighbridges and the abnormal-movement permit. The Tanzania Ports Authority owns the port and its tariff. TIRA licenses the insurer behind the third-party cover. The council owns the premises licence and the service levy. On the islands, the maritime and revenue authorities take the equivalent seats. Air operations belong to the civil aviation regulator.

What to confirm before you act

• The exact registration class your activity falls in, and the regulations that govern it
• Whether any intended shareholder is a non-citizen, before shares are subscribed, not after
• LATRA’s current licence classes, vehicle conditions and published charges
• The live reserved-activity list, since a notice can be replaced without warning
• Whether the cargo carries its own sector authority: a crop board, a mineral permit, a fisheries approval
• The renewal month of each licence and registration, diarised separately with a reminder a month ahead