Some of our readers may recall a case last month whereby a surprised lorry driver was warned he could be fined €149 after the police saw him having a nap in a lorry park near Rotterdam. The driver didn’t understand the fine, as he was just taking an hour-long break rather than having his official rest period in the cabin.
As it turns out, sleeping is not permitted in the lorry park where the driver had a nap. That’s according to a police explanation published on Dutch trucking website ttm.nl yesterday.
The police in the Netherlands say that the law prohibits „using the public road network as a place to sleep”. Therefore, the same rules apply in lorry parks that are part of the network. The fine for this violation of the law is indeed €149.
However, the police have admitted that the notice the aforementioned driver received had some errors on it. Instead of „It is forbidden to sleep in the truck” the information in the leaflet should have read „Sleeping is only permitted in designated parking areas”.
According to Polish trucking website 40ton.net, some local residents in the Netherlands have been angered by the amount of trucks taking up parking spaces. It is alleged that the police are thus handing out fines as a means of motivating drivers to use the official but prohibitively expensive lorry parks.