Supply Chain Crisis
Shoots Up Truck Violations
16 NOV 2021 - The surge in demand for commercial road transportation after the peak of the pandemic has dramatically affected the violations rate in the trucking sector in Europe, results of latest ROADPOL Truck&Bus Operations show.
Despite the great attention that many police forces still have to devote to the Covid-19 pandemic, 19 European countries nevertheless took part in the October operation. During the enforcement activities 197.274 trucks and 111.545 buses were checked overall. As a result 77.386 violations were found (trucks: 69.453, buses: 7.933). In 1166 cases the onward journey had to be prohibited until the proper condition of the vehicles or load had been restored, thereof 1.159 trucks and 17 buses.
Rate
The violation rate for trucks was 35,21%, nearly twice the one registered during the same operation held back in May 2020 – 20.18%. For freight traffic, this means that a violation was found in almost 1 in 3 trucks checked. This was not the case with passenger transportation where the complaint rate stayed steady at about 7-8% of vehicles checked.
“This high percentage for trucks may be explained by the worldwide supply chain crisis and the high global demand for trucking services and truck drivers. Transport companies will try to use their vehicles as much as possible. Unfortunately, road safety seems to be subordinate to market demand and commercial interests.
This shows that freight traffic represents a major risk to road safety and that monitoring is still necessary”, ROADPOL Operational Working Group Secretary Henk Jansen of Dutch National Police said. “European police officers have a very high standard of training in heavy traffic controls, which is reflected in the high complaint rate. Fortunately, the complaint rate is much lower for buses”, adds Jansen.
Henk JansenOffences
Most of the offences were found in the areas of speed (T 8125 / B 1311), technical offences (T 5006 / B 115), seat belts (T 4635 / B 1245) and other safety restraints and vehicle documents law for buses and in the areas of legislation on driving and rest times and tachograph settings: 13.045 drivers (T 12560 / B 485) offended against Europe-wide valid social regulations, meaning they drove their vehicle for longer than legally allowed without complying the mandatory breaks. “This number has never been higher. The rest periods in the transport sector are not only there to protect the drivers themselves, but also for safety in traffic. Truck and bus drivers can cause serious collisions due to fatigue”, explains the ROADPOL OPG Secretary. Further on, 6.170 times the prescribed tachographs were not properly managed. Manipulations of digital tachographs were detected in 656 cases. 188 drivers were also found taking part in road traffic under the influence of alcohol, as well as 41 drivers under the influence of drugs.
In 5.521 cases serious technical defects were found. Also, 2.262 trucks and 127 buses were found with overweight. The load securing insufficient on 1.257 trucks.
With buses most violations were noted by the use of seat belt (1.245), excessive speed (1.311) and technical defects (115). 485 bus drivers also had exceeded the legally permitted driving times.
