Last Friday, the Commercial Vehicle Control Group of the Motorway Police Inspectorate in Germany discovered a case of tampering in a Hungarian lorry. Alerted road users had noticed the lorry’s aggressive driving as the 18-tonne vehicle was reportedly travelling at speeds of around 100 km/h on the A71 towards Schweinfurt.
Specialist officers from the HGV Control Group were deployed to inspect the truck.
At first glance, the officers found no speeding violations based on the recorded data. On the fateful day, the 25-year-old Hungarian driver had reached a maximum speed of 91 km/h, according to the calibrated tachograph.
However, the motorway police were not to be fooled and carried out a thorough investigation. When they checked the data from the last tachograph check, they discovered a significant discrepancy between the number of pulses per kilometre and the effective tyre circumference.
This raised suspicions of pulse manipulation, which under German law requires recalibration.
A subsequent visit to a specialist workshop revealed a deviation of more than 5%, with a difference of just 1% requiring recalibration. It was confirmed that, as a result of this manipulation, the lorry had in fact been driven at speeds of up to 120 km/h on previous journeys.
The HGV was banned from further use until the vehicle unit had been properly recalibrated.
The Hungarian haulier is responsible for the cost of the repairs and it was also required to pay a deposit of €800.