SAME RULES MEANS SAME PUNISHMENTS

The European Commission adopted at the end of January a Directive that establishes a common grading of the most common infringements to the so-called ”social rules“ in the road transport sector (those that govern driving hours and rest periods of professional drivers in the EU).

Establishing a typology of infringements on the basis of their seriousness will put an end to the present situation, where the same infringement may be considered a minor infringement in one country and a more serious infringement in another country. The new categorisation distinguishes three levels of infringements: minor infringements, serious infringements and very serious infringements. The severity of an infringement depends on its influence on road safety. Actions that make monitoring compliance with social legislation impossible, such as fraud on the tachograph, are classified as very serious. The new categories of infringements should serve as the basis for the risk rating systems that Member States are obliged to establish, in order to better target checks on undertakings. Undertakings have to be ranked according to their controls record and to the infringements committed. Those with a high-risk rating will be checked more closely and more often.