Truck violation rate stays solid, results of latest ROADPOL Truck&Bus Operation show
From 8th to 14th May 2023, the Europe-wide ROADPOL Control Week “Truck and Bus” took place, the second of this year, which focuses on the control of commercial goods and passenger transport.
This May in total 28 countries supported the operation Truck & Bus. According to their feedback, 142.732 trucks and 92.403 buses were checked. During this control week 38.589 violations were found (trucks: 34.270, buses: 4.319). 1230 times the onward journey had to be prohibited until the driver has taken his statutory rest period or the proper condition of the vehicles or load had been restored. The violation rate was 24,01% for freight transport and 4,67% for buses.
For freight traffic, this means that a violation was found in almost 1 in 4 trucks checked.
Trend
Compared to same time last year total violation rate with trucks stays solid to increasing – from 23% to 24%. What is troublesome is the rate of heavy violations – those requiring impounding of truck and discontinuation of journey. This rate increased by 50% compared to a year ago. The good news is that bus violations went down. While those were detected in 7% of inspections a year ago, this time the rate is below 5%.
Details
– All this shows that freight traffic represents a major risk to road safety and that monitoring is still necessary. European police officers have a very high standard of training in heavy traffic controls, which is reflected in the high complaint rate – commented ROADPOL Operations Working Group secretary Henk P. Jansen from the Dutch National Police.
According to him, for trucks most of the offences were found in the area of exceeding driving time, tachograph settings or manipulation, speed and technical offences (including overweight and insecure loads). For buses most of the offences were found in the area of seat belts and other safety restraints, speed, exceeding driving time, tachograph settings and vehicle documents.
Tachographs
7.564 drivers (trucks 7.365, buses 199) offended against Europe-wide valid social regulations, meaning they drove their vehicle for longer than legally allowed without complying the mandatory breaks. 1.986 times the prescribed tachographs were not properly managed.
Manipulations of digital tachographs were detected in 259 cases.
– Fumbling with the settings of the tachograph or even manipulating those takes on larger forms every year. The reason for this type of fraud might be the sustained competitive pressure in this still-growing industry. The financial benefits for transporters may be large, but the risks for road safety are greater. Especially due to driver fatigue, collisions can occur with serious consequences, not only for the driver of the truck or bus himself, but also for other road users – says Jansen.
Unfortunately, 173 drivers were also found taking part in road traffic under the influence of alcohol, as well as 26 drivers under the influence of drugs. In 2.695 cases (2.556 trucks, 139 buses) serious technical defects were found. 736 trucks (< 12 tons), 331 trucks (> 12 tons) and 46 buses were found with overweight. Also was the load securing insufficient on 824 trucks.
The next ROADPOL operation Truck & Bus will take place from 6th to 12th November 2023.
Source: roadpol.eu
Photo: facebook.com/roadpoleu
