Attestation form was killed off by EU law in March 2015 by REGULATION (EU) No 165/2014 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT.
From page 17
“Member States shall not impose on drivers a requirement to present forms attesting to their activities while away from the vehicle.”
However the same document introduced a few new requirements which summarise something like this as I understand it.
You must have a full tacho record for the previous 28 days.
So if you were between jobs,on holidays, or doing other relevant work/availability with your card in your pocket then as soon as you get back in a cab you must make a manual entry to that effect. Everyone of those 28 days must be accounted for on the card with rest, work or availability.
Then you are legal.
However the fines for foreigners are not always about being legal but more often about the rediculous interpretations certain police forces wish to take on the day or the fact they are just thieves of unknown parentage
On the Continent I find the Belgian police to be one the most embarassing police forces about although those guys in Nancy are well up there too with the idiotic double manning fines and then there is the Spanish.
I think most people would keep those three on the podium anyway but in different order perhaps.
No matter how legal you are they can always get you for something if they want to but some drivers do make it very easy for them.
At the end of the day an occasional fine just goes with the territory.
Sometimes we may justifiably feel very hard done by over a minor indiscretion but then I think about the ones that I got away with and realise it could be worse.
So don’t worry about the ocassional fine as long as you are in reasonable order cos you will pay one day anyway.
But once you have the first bad fine behind you, you actually get to be much more relaxed about those things afterwards (speaking as a company driver rather than an O.D.)
and a lot more clever too. 