Official figures from the Irish government have shown a record level of articulated lorry traffic at the ROI-NI border in 2022. The number of HGVs crossing the border has been steadily increasing since 2013, when the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) began collating the figures.

Official Irish data shows record level of HGVs border-crossing in 2022

The launch of the EU's new Galileo service, whose task will be to authenticate the positions of truck drivers recorded by via tachograph, has to be postponed and is now expected to be operational by December 2023, the European Commission has confirmed to Trans.INFO. This means that the new Smart Tachograph 2 devices, which must be installed in all new HGVs from August of this year, won't be able to use the service for a while.

Satellite issue to temporarily impact function on new smart tachographs

A second freight traffic lane has been opened at the Pete-Csengersima border crossing on the Hungarian-Romanian border, where HGVs will be examined with an X-ray to check if illegal immigrants are hiding in the trailer, the Romanian border police announced on Wednesday.

New freight traffic lane with X-ray gate on the Hungarian-Romanian border

New regulations on tolls and payment of fines have entered into force in Turkey on 15 March, the Turkish Ministry of Trade announced. Unless all relevant road tolls or fines are paid, HGVs shall not be allowed to leave the country.

Turkey to prevent trucks leaving country if fines are still unpaid

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Serbian HGV drivers had to wait at the Ukrainian border with Romania for 4 days as the Ukrainian forces didn't allow them to leave. However, thanks to a diplomatic mediation between Serbia and Ukraine, the trucks were permitted to enter Romania on Tuesday afternoon. The Serbian Chamber of Commerce has nonetheless warned hauliers of the financial unpredictability and safety hazards of conducting transport in the countries part of the conflict.

Ukraine invasion impacts Serbian hauliers’ transports to Russia

<p class="article-content__subtitle" data-test="article.subtitle">An HGV driver who failed to comply with the obligation to register his border crossing was fined 1,001 euros in Spain. The financial penalty was administered despite the fact the Spanish government has not yet implemented laws detailing how much the fines for the offence should be.</p>

Driver fined €1,001 for not registering border crossing via tachograph

A Dutch trucker has claimed that “life-threatening" situations are occuring at borders due to HGV drivers suddenly stopping on the hard shoulder to record their border crossing via tachograph - a requirement introduced as part of the EU Mobility Package.

Border crossing registering creates life-threatening situations, lorry driver says

P&O Ferries has launched its Travel Wallet app to help hauliers navigate the pre-journey process between the EU and the UK, as well as make checking-in at ports as simple as possible. Apart from reducing the stress for drivers when crossing the border, the app is said to reduce general waiting times and delays as well.

P&O Ferries’ Travel Wallet app to help hauliers cross post-Brexit borders

<span data-preserver-spaces="true">The obligation for drivers to enter the country code into the tachograph at the border or the first possible stop after the border will cause chaos at the borders, increase CO2 emissions and lead to higher costs, warns the Dutch transportation organisation TLN. Therefore, it recommends changing the law to allow drivers to record the border crossing at the first planned stop.</span>

Mandatory border crossing recording should be changed to 1st planned stop, says TLN

If a vehicle’s digital tachograph does not record border crossings automatically, drivers must do it manually from 2 February 2022, as set out in the Tachograph Regulations of the Mobility Package. However, this is not the only change that drivers and hauliers should pay attention to. From March, a 4-day-long “cooling off" period must be applied when planning cabotage operations and measures on posted workers are also set to get stricter.