The inspection took place near Sala in central Sweden. Officers from the road transport control group in Västerås spotted a truck and trailer operated by the Lithuanian carrier and signalled for it to stop. The driver ignored the police’s first instruction.
According to the Swedish trade publication Proffs, the officers initially assumed that the driver had simply failed to notice the signal. He slowed down when they tried again, but drove past the police car parked on the roadside and continued east.
The officers followed the truck and managed to stop it only after a third attempt, on a wooded stretch of road between Sala and Heby. During the conversation, the driver acknowledged that he had understood the earlier signals ordering him to pull over.
Seven months without accommodation outside the truck
The inspection covered more than transport documents. Officers also reviewed the carrier’s permits, tachograph records and how the driver’s work had been organised. The most serious issue emerged during the interview: the driver said that, since leaving Lithuania in March 2026, he had lived continuously in the truck cab.
Swedish road transport inspector Roger Ogemar told Proffs that the driver had not been given the option of staying in a hotel.
He told us that he was never allowed to stay in a hotel. We encounter situations like this fairly often when Lithuanian transport companies employ drivers from non-EU countries.
The carrier was fined 80,000 Swedish kronor, equivalent to approximately €7,300.
When can a driver sleep in the truck cab?
The ban on sleeping in the cab does not apply to every rest period. Under the Mobility Package, a driver’s regular weekly rest of 45 hours or more must be taken outside the vehicle. The same applies to any rest period longer than 45 hours taken as compensation for an earlier reduction in weekly rest.
Shorter rest periods, including reduced weekly rest, may be taken in the cab, provided that the vehicle is stationary and the driver has suitable sleeping facilities.
The European Commission has clarified that suitable accommodation does not necessarily mean a hotel. It can also be a motel, rented apartment or private home. What matters is that the driver has proper sleeping conditions, access to sanitary facilities and sufficient privacy. Where the driver is an employee, the employer must cover the accommodation costs.
The rules also limit what enforcement officers can demand during an inspection. According to the European Commission, a driver does not have to produce hotel invoices or other documents proving where an earlier regular weekly rest was taken.
A penalty for breaching the ban can be imposed if a driver is found taking prohibited rest in the cab during an inspection. Authorities cannot, however, require the driver to provide documents proving where previous rest periods were spent.
The ban applies to self-employed drivers as well as employees. The difference concerns who pays for the accommodation: a self-employed driver must cover the cost of staying outside the vehicle personally.
Seven months on the road: what does the Mobility Package require?
The case also raises questions about the EU rules requiring employers to provide drivers with opportunities to return home or to the company’s operational base. Can an employee of a transport company remain abroad for seven months without returning home or going back to the company’s operational centre?
Under Article 8(8a) of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, as amended by the Mobility Package, carriers must organise work so that drivers have an opportunity to return every four weeks to their place of residence or to the company’s operational centre, where they normally start work. For international freight drivers who take two consecutive reduced weekly rest periods, the opportunity to return must be provided after three weeks.
This does not mean that a driver is forced to return physically. The European Commission says that drivers are free to choose where they spend their rest and may decide to remain abroad.
The employer must nevertheless take the initiative and organise the opportunity to return, even if the driver does not ask for it. Following a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union dated 4 October 2024, a carrier may be released from arranging a specific return only if the driver personally informs the company that they do not intend to use that opportunity. A general waiver included, for example, in an employment contract is not enough.
The employer must pay for an organised return and retain evidence showing that the driver was given the opportunity to make one. This may include tachograph data, work schedules, tickets or other records documenting the travel arrangements.
In the Swedish case, it is not known whether the Lithuanian company offered the driver regular opportunities to return or whether he had personally declined them. Spending seven months abroad therefore does not, by itself, prove a breach of the return rules. The carrier was nevertheless required to provide suitable conditions for the driver to take regular weekly rest outside the truck cab.
Truck immobilised after inspection – fine paid within an hour
After identifying the violation, the Swedish officers immobilised the truck with a special device that prevented it from continuing until the inspection requirements had been met.
The stoppage was brief. Roger Ogemar said that the Lithuanian carrier paid the full amount just one hour after the immobilisation device was fitted. According to the inspector, the company settled the charge without asking any further questions.
