RHA highlights drivers’ hours compliance gap for foreign trucks

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) has reported that non-UK trucks are “significantly more likely” than UK-operated vehicles to be found to have seriously infringed drivers’ hours laws in a manner that would attract penalty notices, following examination of tachograph records.

The association referred to figures from Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) roadside checks presented to the Commercial Vehicle Road Safety Compliance Forum recently.

The Forum, set up in 2012, provides DVSA, the police and traffic commissioners with a platform to discuss current and future enforcement concerns.

“Some 37 per cent of non-UK vehicles were found to have historical drivers’ hours’ offences, while in the case of UK trucks the figure was 20 per cent,” said RHA.

“The DVSA also found that 42 per cent of the tachograph records of non-UK vehicles showed offences that would have been subject to fixed penalties, with the figure for UK trucks being 28 per cent.”

RHA added that DVSA was working with the Department for Transport to assess how enforcement could be better targeted to allow for the discrepancy.

Tachograph and drivers’ hours offences combined continue to account for a majority of serious HGV-related traffic offences, according to DVSA’s fleet compliance checks survey.

The agency’s report for 2013-14 found that: “Tachograph and drivers’ hours offences accounted for 61 per cent and 60 per cent of all GB and non-GB serious traffic offences, respectively.”

Other traffic compliance breaches recorded by the survey include driver licence, illegal operator, plating and testing, overloading, vehicle excise duty and speed limiter offences.