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Photo: ILT

Dutch road transport inspectorate lauds online tachograph checks

Three months ago, the Dutch transport inspectorate started a new method of checking compliance with drivers’ hours’ rules - requesting road transport firms send them tachograph data online. Initial results shows the new method is efficient.

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Since August, Dutch companies in the road transport sector can expect to receive a request from inspectors to submit their tachograph files digitally via a web form. The ILT (Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport – Inspection of Living Environment and Transport) then uses the data to analyze to what extent the companies comply with the rules for driving and rest times.

Project leader Martijn Klaassen says the first results show that the digital inspection functions well and that the companies approached are cooperating satisfactorily.

According to Klaassen, these digital inspections provide more insight into the sector than ever:

“If an inspector knows which road transport operators do not need major interventions to comply with driving and rest times, they can focus on checking others that do violate the rules.”

He adds that the inconvenience of online inspection for the companies is much smaller than that of physical control.

ILT add that this working method puts them as supervisors into a better position because the inspectors have more knowledge of which companies should be given a higher priority. To put it simply, the online inspections allow the authority to nag the well-doers less and check the wrong-doers more.

“Companies that deliberately fail to observe driving and rest times do so for financial gain. If a company does not cooperate with this digital inspection, the ILT still has the option of using other inspection methods.”

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