Each year, Roadpol, the European network of traffic police, conducts three special weeks of roadside inspections targeting commercial vehicles and buses under the name Truck&Bus. The first round of 2025 took place from 17 to 23 February, the second from 5 to 11 May, and the third is scheduled for 17 to 23 November. The European Professional Drivers Association (Epda) released data from the May campaign, revealing that around 69,749 breaches were recorded in just one week, with roughly one in four vehicles failing to comply with regulations.
The most common infringement was related to driving and rest times. In many instances, drivers had skipped mandatory breaks, exceeded permitted driving limits or spent their weekly rest period inside the cab, a practice prohibited under EU law. There were also numerous cases of tampered tachographs, devices intended to ensure traceability of working hours.
Details from individual countries painted an even more troubling picture. In Belgium, for instance, checks at the port of Zeebrugge covered 168 vehicles, with more than half found to be non-compliant. Some 51 percent of them were involved in illegal in-cab resting practices. In a joint operation across Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Italy, Lithuania and Romania, 320 inspectors examined 420 vehicles, identifying violations amounting to over €240,000 in fines.
In Romania, one driver was found to have reduced his weekly rest by nearly 17 hours. In Slovakia, there was a high number of offences linked to repeated breaches of driving time limits and tachograph tampering. In Greece, inspections north of Athens revealed not only excessive overtime but also the presence of shell companies registered in one country but operating permanently in another, a system designed to bypass checks and lower operating costs at the expense of legality and workers’ rights.
In response to these infractions, enforcement authorities are introducing more advanced technological tools. In Belgium, for example, systems are being adopted for the remote monitoring of tachographs, allowing for real-time detection of violations with greater efficiency. Commenting on the findings, the Epda stated that they “confirm what professional drivers have been denouncing for years: inconsistent enforcement of rules, mounting pressure from operators, and legal loopholes that too often shift the burden onto drivers”. The association is calling on European institutions to ensure fair application of the regulations, introduce modern tools such as smart tachographs, and strengthen cross-border data sharing to improve the effectiveness of inspections and promote fairer working conditions.
