ROADPOL has announced that its latest Truck & Bus Operation saw 2,341 trucks forced to discontinue their journeys due to serious violations.
The campaign ran from 13th to 19th February 2023, and will be repeated twice before the end of the year.
24 countries took part in the operation, in which 121,933 trucks and 91,590 buses were checked.
As many as 51,468 violations were found (trucks: 46,498, buses: 4,970). On 2,341 occasions a lorry’s journey had to be prohibited until the proper condition of the vehicle or load had been restored.
The complaint rate was 22.11% for freight transport and 3.49% for buses. For freight traffic, this means that a violation was found in almost 1 in 4 trucks checked.
“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,” said ROADPOL Operational Working Group secretary Henk P. Jansen, from the Police of the Netherlands.
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).
10,424 drivers (trucks 10,105, buses 319) broke drivers’ hours rules, while 3,607 times prescribed tachographs were not properly managed.
Manipulations of digital tachographs were also detected in 468 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 competitive pressure in this dynamically developing sector. The financial benefits for the haulers may be large, but the risks for road safety are greater”, Jansen commented.
According to Jansen, driver fatigue can bring about collisions with serious consequences – not only for the driver of the truck or bus, but for other road users as well.
210 drivers were also found to be under the influence of alcohol, as well as 80 drivers under the influence of drugs.
In 3,297 cases (3,110 trucks, 187 buses) serious technical defects were found.
923 trucks (< 12 tons), 655 trucks (> 12 tons) and 37 busses were found to be overweight. Finally, load securing was found to be insufficient on 1,541 trucks.
“The result of the control week shows that inspections in the area of heavy goods traffic and passenger transport are still an important approach to improve traffic safety. In addition to the punishment of violations, the drivers are informed by clarifying discussions on the dangers such as insufficient securing of load, putting on seat belt or fatigue due to exceeding of driving times“, Jansen added.
The next ROADPOL Truck & Bus operation will take place from 8th to 14th May 2023.
