A Belgian truck driver was caught red-handed on 23 offences related to working and resting times last week. The amount of deposit that the employer had to pay for the offences should discourage him from further violations.
Last week, the gendarmes stopped a Belgian truck for a routine control on the A71 near Gerzat in the French Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region.
After checking the tachograph data from the last 28 days, officers detected as many as 23 violations related to the time of work and rest. For example, on Tuesday, 5 November, the trucker drove almost 8 hours without a break, while he should have taken a break after 4 hours and 30 minutes of driving. Because of this and such offences, the gendarmes required 11,700 euros of deposit. The driver could only start working after 19 hours when the company paid the fee.
We want to remind you that fines regarding the breaching of work and rest time regulations is 135 euros per offence in France:
– for exceeding the driving time by less than 1.5 hours,
– for exceeding the daily driving time by less than 2 hours,
– for exceeding the weekly working time by less than 14 hours,
– for exceeding the cumulative driving time by less than 22.5 hours in a period of 2 weeks.
If the working time has been exceeded for more than the thresholds indicated above, the fine is 1,500 euros and 3,000 euros in the case of recidivism.
It is worth mentioning that the maximum fine for spending a regular weekly rest in the vehicle cabin in France is up to 30,000 euros.
There is no upper limit in France for the accumulation of penalties.
Photo: Twitter.com/Prefecture40