UNTRR published a warning about the harsh fines on Wednesday, 20th September adding that the regulation is being enforced by the DREAL (Direction Régionale de l’Environnement, de l’Aménagement et du Logement), the French regional authority responsible for environmental protection, planning, and housing.
The penalty for violating the regulation is 1 year in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros and the is applied to the manager of the company.
The UNTRR lawyer for France, Smaranda Rugina, has confirmed that she has more than 10 pending cases for this violation applied to companies in Romania.
The driver’s obligation to return home is provided for in REGULATION (EC) NO. 561/2006 of March 15, 2006 on the harmonization of certain provisions of social legislation in the field of road transport, amended and supplemented by Regulation 1054/2020 at art. 8:
Transport undertakings shall organise the work of drivers in such a way that the drivers are able to return to the employer’s operational centre where the driver is normally based and where the driver’s weekly rest period begins, in the Member State of the employer’s establishment, or to return to the drivers’ place of residence, within each period of four consecutive weeks, in order to spend at least one regular weekly rest period or a weekly rest period of more than 45 hours taken in compensation for reduced weekly rest period.
However, where the driver has taken two consecutive reduced weekly rest periods in accordance with paragraph 6, the transport undertaking shall organise the work of the driver in such a way that the driver is able to return before the start of the regular weekly rest period of more than 45 hours taken in compensation.
The undertaking shall document how it fulfils that obligation and shall keep the documentation at its premises in order to present it at the request of control authorities.