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When in Europe...
Page 16
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With the increasing number of trucks travelling across Europe, the European Traffic Police Network spent a week pulling over trucks for inspection. The results make for interesting reading.
Words: Roanna Avison A 22-COUNTRY operation by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL) saw police check 123,752 HGVs and discover 41,000 offences (CM 13 November). Of these offences, 20% were carried out by trucks travelling outside their country of registration.
However, the figures show that some offences were more prevalent in certain countries and the percentage of foreign trucks found to be breaking the rules also varied between them.
UK
About half of the foreign trucks stopped were committing an offence, while about a third of the UK vehicles fell foul of the rules. Following the overall trend, drivers' hours offences top the list in the UK. 934 UK trucks stopped — 390 with offences 145 foreign trucks checked — 60 with offences 326 drivers' hours offences 175 technical faults 99 vehicles were not allowed to continue 31 overweight trucks 24 tacho viola tions 24 document violations 8 insecure loads 3 disqualified drivers 1 driver under the influence of alcohol.
Germany
Surprisingly, none of the foreign lorries stopped in Germany were committing any offences. Like the UK, drivers' hours violations were the most common. Germany also topped the list for tacho offences and insecure loads.
16,189 German trucks stopped— 11,332 with offences 4,897 foreign trucks checked — none with offences 4,864 drivers' hours offences 1,337 technical faults 881 insecure loads 714 tacho violations 499 speeding offences 336 vehicles were not allowed to continue 188 overweight trucks 161 document violations 84 drivers not wearing seat belts 7 disqualified drivers 4 drivers under the influence of alcohol 3 drivers under the influence of drugs 2,590 other offences.
France
Drivers' hours offences were top of the pile in France as well. However, the number of trucks that were not allowed to continue was the highest, as was the number of drivers stopped for driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. 19,356 French trucks stopped — 3,138 with offences 9,956 foreign trucks checked — 2,285 with offences 3,616 with drivers' hours violations 1,162 trucks were not allowed to continue 801 document violations 434 techni cal faults 377 trucks were caught speeding 354 overweight trucks 333 tacho offences 252 drivers under the influence of alcohol 110 insecure loads 39 disqualified drivers 11 drivers under the influence of drugs 72 other offences.
Italy
By far the largest number of drivers stopped for not wearing a seat belt was in Italy. The country also topped the list for the number of drivers carrying incorrect documents.
12,348 Italian-registered trucks checked — 4,836 with offences 2,105 foreign trucks stopped — 465 with offences 5,565 drivers were not wearing a seat belt 974 document violations 783 technical offences 606 overweight vehicles 573 drivers speeding 452 tacho offences 378 drivers' hours vio lations 96 insecure loads 63 disqualified drivers 59 HGVs were not allowed to continue 57 drivers under the influence of alcohol.
Poland
The largest number of HGV drivers caught speeding was in Poland, but it also had the largest number of HGVs with technical faults. Unlike the rest of Europe, the number of drivers with hours offences was low.
13,597 Polish trucks checked — 3,952 with offences 449 foreign trucks stopped — 133 with offences 2,058 drivers caught speeding 1,651 technical faults 337 trucks were not allowed to continue 119 tacho offences 109 drink-driving offences 101 insecure loads 25 drivers' hours offences 9 overweight vehicles 2 drivers under the influence of drugs Romania
Romania came in behind Poland for the number of speeding drivers.The number of drivers' hours offences was also relatively low. However, Romania did have the largest number of disqualified drivers caught during the crackdown.
12,789 Romanian trucks stopped —5,438 with offences 1,644 foreign trucks checked — 344 with offences 1,915 drivers caught speeding 846 document violations 592 technical faults 248 disqualified drivers 187 insecure loads 122 overweight HGVs 116 tacho offences 73 drivers' hours violations 72 drivers under the influence of alcohol 40 trucks were not allowed to continue 12 other offences. •