France
acknowledges that it has wrongly imposed fines for failing to take breaks
on double-crewed journeys. This is evident from a letter from the French Ministry.
All fines imposed will be reversed.
At the end of April, it emerged that lorry drivers had been wrongly issued with heavy fines
during tachograph checks. The software in the monitoring systems was
failed to take into account journeys with two drivers, meaning the
drivers failing to comply with the mandatory rest period. Drivers are required to take a rest
behind the wheel to take a rest break and to record this in the
tachograph. On a two-driver journey, the driver records his rest period (as the
other driver is at the wheel) as ‘availability time’. The
tachograph recorded that no rest period had taken place, resulting in a fine being wrongly
was wrongly imposed.
45-minute rest period
The issue was discussed by the European Commission and has now been taken up by the
French Ministry. In a letter, the French Ministry instructs all
enforcement agencies to take ‘Guideline 2’ into account. This means
that 45 minutes of ‘availability time’ (during which the driver is seated next to the
driver of the vehicle) can be regarded as rest time.
Claiming back wrongly imposed fines
TLN advises transport companies to give the letter from the Ministry to
to drivers, so that they can show it to any enforcement officers. Companies
that have paid a fine for allegedly disregarding rest periods during
dual-crew journeys may claim a refund of this deposit in due course. The fine
will not be refunded automatically, and the procedure may vary from court to court
, warns TLN. Companies with questions about the procedure can
contact the trade association.
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