Norway's Roads Administration has revealed how its HGV inspectors recently came across a Bulgarian haulier's embarrassing attempt at passing off its tyres as approved winter ones.
In 2020, new requirements were introduced for winter HGV tyres. The rules state that tyres on the steering front axle and drive wheels must bear the 3PMSF mark that’s commonly referred to in Norway as the “alpine symbol”.
The tyre photographed below is an example of how the mark should look like.
According to Norwegian TV Station TV2, a recent truck inspection campaign at Svinesund last week led to the discovery of tyres that had a fake 3PMSF mark scraped onto them.
As the featured image at the top of the article shows, the attempt at the fake 3PMSF mark wasn’t exactly convincing. The mark had simply been scraped on in a rather crude manner.
In a statement describing the case, the Norwegian Roads Administration said:
“A Bulgarian lorry was stopped for inspection. Here, the owner of the truck had taken the liberty of marking the tyres himself. Unfortunately, he was not particularly good at this. The tyres were not suitable for winter driving and the driver was fined NOK 4,000.”
