From May 13 to 19, 2024, Roadpol coordinated the second road inspection campaign of the year across eighteen European countries, targeting industrial vehicles and buses. During this operation, officers inspected 228,389 industrial vehicles and 136,335 buses, identifying a total of 78,926 violations, with 69,749 related to goods transport and 9,177 to passenger transport. In 2,363 cases (2,167 trucks and 196 buses), the journey was prohibited until the driver took the mandatory rest period or the vehicle or load was brought back to compliant conditions. The violation rate was 23.43% for goods transport and 6.43% for buses.
The most common violations among trucks included exceeding driving times, tachograph settings or manipulations, speed violations, and technical infractions (including overloading and unsafe loads). For buses, the frequent violations involved seat belts and other restraint devices, speed, exceeding driving times, tachograph settings, and vehicle documents.
In total, 8,391 drivers (7,638 truck drivers and 753 bus drivers) breached European social regulations by driving for longer periods than allowed without taking mandatory breaks. The average violation rate for driving and rest time infractions was 3.4% of the inspections conducted. However, these numbers varied significantly among member countries, with very high percentages in Belgium (43%), Austria (31%), and Germany (18%), and nearly negligible in Bulgaria (0.51%), Slovakia (0.45%), and Lithuania (0.13%).
Additionally, in 4,787 cases (4,236 trucks and 551 buses), the prescribed tachographs were not properly managed. There were 836 instances (803 trucks and 33 buses) of digital tachograph tampering. Furthermore, 175 drivers were found driving under the influence of alcohol (150 truck drivers and 25 bus drivers), and 35 drivers (all truck drivers) were found under the influence of drugs. The next Roadpol Truck & Bus operation is scheduled for November 11 to 17, 2024.
