According to police, the driver had accumulated 91 hours behind the wheel and travelled more than 6,500 kilometres in just ten days. Officers are also investigating whether a second driver card belonging to another person was used to record some of his activity.
If the suspicions are confirmed, German police say the financial consequences for the driver and operator could reach the lower five-figure range in euros.
Stop began with a following-distance offence
The inspection took place on the A5 near Grünberg in the German state of Hesse on 20 August.
A plain-clothes motorway patrol initially noticed the lorry because it was following another vehicle combination at what police considered a dangerously short distance. At around 80 km/h, the gap was reportedly only about ten metres.
The subsequent tachograph inspection, however, revealed what police described as much more serious irregularities.
Officers found that the tachograph had alternately recorded activity using the card of the Ukrainian driver and a card belonging to a female driver.
The woman was not in the vehicle when it was stopped. According to the driver, she had left the lorry earlier and continued towards Italy in another truck. Officers were unable to locate her driver card.
Police investigate suspected use of another driver’s card
Based on the tachograph data, police suspect that the second card may have been used to record driving and working time performed by the driver who was stopped.
However, police have stressed that this has not yet been established and remains part of the ongoing investigation.
The records examined during the roadside inspection indicated that the driver had accumulated 91 hours of driving during a ten-day period and covered more than 6,500 kilometres.
Police said that during those ten days he had taken a nine-hour daily rest only once. The required weekly rest had also not been observed.
Under EU drivers’ hours rules, an individual driver may normally drive no more than 56 hours in one week, while total driving time may not exceed 90 hours across any two consecutive weeks.
Police also said the way the two driver cards had been used did not correspond to a legitimate two-driver operation, adding to their suspicion that the vehicle had been driven for excessive periods without the required breaks and rests.
German fines can mount quickly
For hauliers operating in Germany, the case also illustrates how repeated drivers’ hours infringements can produce substantial financial penalties.
Germany’s official penalty catalogue provides separate sanctions for the driver and the operator. For serious daily driving-time infringements, for example, penalties can reach €60 for the driver and €180 for the undertaking for each commenced 30-minute period beyond the relevant threshold.
Similar escalating rates apply to weekly driving-time infringements, with the operator typically facing a substantially higher penalty than the driver.
Crucially, penalties can be imposed for multiple individual infringements rather than treating an extended sequence of violations as a single offence. That means several days of excessive driving, insufficient breaks and inadequate rest can quickly produce a much larger total bill.
German law also allows enforcement authorities to prevent a driver from continuing the journey until the legal conditions for driving again have been met, including taking the required rest.
Driver forced to take rest before continuing
That is what happened in the Grünberg case.
Police said the driver had to make up the missing rest periods before he was permitted to continue his journey.
No accident or confirmed incident endangering another road user had occurred before the truck was stopped, according to the police.
For operators, this means serious drivers’ hours infringements can bring consequences beyond the eventual fine: the vehicle may also be immobilised, disrupting the journey and potentially delaying the load.
Criminal investigation opened over tachograph data
The suspected use of the second driver card has taken the case beyond drivers’ hours offences alone.
Police have opened a criminal investigation on suspicion of falsifying data of evidential relevance.
They have not concluded that the Ukrainian driver actually used the woman’s card to record his own activity. That question remains under investigation.
If the suspicion is confirmed, however, the consequences could extend beyond administrative penalties for driving and rest-time offences.
German police said the combined financial consequences for the driver and the undertaking arising from the infringements identified during the inspection could fall within the lower five-figure euro range. The final amount will depend on the outcome of the investigation and how the individual offences are ultimately classified.
The case also highlights why operators can face significantly higher penalties than drivers themselves. EU and German rules place responsibility on transport companies to organise work so that drivers can comply with legal limits on driving, breaks and rest periods. Germany’s penalty catalogue therefore provides substantially higher sanctions for undertakings in many categories of drivers’ hours infringement.
