Euro fines

I don’t do euro very often and then it’s only normally France or Belgium, but reading through some of these posts it appears you can be fined heavily for even minor indiscretions. I was wondering what would actually happen if you couldn’t or wouldn’t pay? Would they lock you up over a few minor Tacho infringements or is it the case they immobilise the vehicle until someone pays??

They take away the vehicle documents so you can’t drive away, the permit and registration documents .
They will not take the vehicle keys, you are allowed to stay in the cab .
Where they stop you may not have facilities for the loo, showers or food .
It could be in the middle of nowhere.
They do not care if you don’t want to pay or can’t pay, the lorry sits there until the court deposit is paid, you can contest the amount if decide to attend the court but not many foreign drivers will have the time and money spare to attend so just pay at the road side.
Tacho offence can be 10,000 to 20,000 euros of which Western Union will be used to wire the money .
The Basque area of Spain has a reputation for telephone number sized fines .
The Navara area and Catalan area by the Moses police .
I was parked up for seven days in the Basque region to pay 2300 euros, I had not driven for six months so my boss stamped an attestation activity form to cover no tachos but they did not accept it .

Blimey that’d definitely ruin your day!

But you do get to have lunch with the local Mayor :stuck_out_tongue:

And take his daughter for a long and hard ride

On my bike

You can use some fuel cards to pay, which at l least gets you back on your way. I do know a few people who’ve had hefty fines ,or deposits, but if you add up all the trips of all the people I know who drive into Spain or France it does seem to be a rare occasion.

muckles:
You can use some fuel cards to pay, which at l least gets you back on your way. I do know a few people who’ve had hefty fines ,or deposits, but if you add up all the trips of all the people I know who drive into Spain or France it does seem to be a rare occasion.

That’s a bit of a reassurance. I only usually do France and Belgium but I think the police might take issue with my Tacho card as I spend the majority of the time in the workshop so large periods unaccounted for and while I wouldn’t mind arguing with vosa over my diary showing the periods spent on other work I think the police over there might be a tad harder to convince.

I am not sure if the attestation activity form is still required by law in Europe or not, but when I used them , you enter the dates where you have no tachograph records such as being on holiday, off sick, and being absent from work .
Without the form it was a fine for no records.
In the UK it is up the enforcement official to prove what you have done with your time .
So you could drive a combine all night for 12 hours then do a full shift in a lorry .

AF1:

muckles:
You can use some fuel cards to pay, which at l least gets you back on your way. I do know a few people who’ve had hefty fines ,or deposits, but if you add up all the trips of all the people I know who drive into Spain or France it does seem to be a rare occasion.

That’s a bit of a reassurance. I only usually do France and Belgium but I think the police might take issue with my Tacho card as I spend the majority of the time in the workshop so large periods unaccounted for and while I wouldn’t mind arguing with vosa over my diary showing the periods spent on other work I think the police over there might be a tad harder to convince.

Get a letter of attestation from your boss don’t think they are a legal requirement anymore but handy to have and hand over with all the rest of your paperwork, it will at least show that you are doing your best to keep it right and could make all the difference

mazzer:

AF1:

muckles:
You can use some fuel cards to pay, which at l least gets you back on your way. I do know a few people who’ve had hefty fines ,or deposits, but if you add up all the trips of all the people I know who drive into Spain or France it does seem to be a rare occasion.

That’s a bit of a reassurance. I only usually do France and Belgium but I think the police might take issue with my Tacho card as I spend the majority of the time in the workshop so large periods unaccounted for and while I wouldn’t mind arguing with vosa over my diary showing the periods spent on other work I think the police over there might be a tad harder to convince.

Get a letter of attestation from your boss don’t think they are a legal requirement anymore but handy to have and hand over with all the rest of your paperwork, it will at least show that you are doing your best to keep it right and could make all the difference

As above. Youll not be fined for having too much paperwork. And yes, you could/will be parked up until a fine/deposit (acquit a caution) is paid. French (and other) police do expect cash, or approved cards there n then, from foreigners. Slightly different rules for Fr nationals, but then, they cant run away so easily.

duplicate v5.£25…write out your own cmr…wait till you guess is a good time for a shift change assuming you still got your keys.or use your spare,…light her up and heavy pedal for the boat…if the fine was for their back pocket,then no more to be said.

I would ask them to show me their official book of penalties which is in their car or side panniers on the motorbike .
It lists the offence, code and amount to be paid.
The days of giving them a bung or " coffee money " are long gone .
They never take the lorry keys .
If you do make a run for it and do not pay, it will be logged and the next time getting off the ferry, the Douanes will be waiting .
Or stopped on the road with more trouble and money to pay .

I’ve only been nabbed once, in Spain just north of Barcelona. €2000 for some very minor infringements such as being ten minutes late starting daily rest in a port waiting for a ferry. Was sat there 2 days waiting for money to materialise. Like Toby says they take all your paperwork and in my case clamped the steering wheel to the hand rail

toby1234abc:
I would ask them to show me their official book of penalties which is in their car or side panniers on the motorbike .
It lists the offence, code and amount to be paid.
The days of giving them a bung or " coffee money " are long gone .
They never take the lorry keys .
If you do make a run for it and do not pay, it will be logged and the next time getting off the ferry, the Douanes will be waiting .
Or stopped on the road with more trouble and money to pay .

The Italians were right ones for coffee money. You could tell when they were hoping for a bit of cash when they stop you using a lollipop reflector instead of blue lights. I never carried cash tho so after tooing and frowing and me waving bank card round saying ‘banca banca’ they usually told me to eff off!

switchlogic:

toby1234abc:
I would ask them to show me their official book of penalties which is in their car or side panniers on the motorbike .
It lists the offence, code and amount to be paid.
The days of giving them a bung or " coffee money " are long gone .
They never take the lorry keys .
If you do make a run for it and do not pay, it will be logged and the next time getting off the ferry, the Douanes will be waiting .
Or stopped on the road with more trouble and money to pay .

The Italians were right ones for coffee money. You could tell when they were hoping for a bit of cash when they stop you using a lollipop reflector instead of blue lights. I never carried cash tho so after tooing and frowing and me waving bank card round saying ‘banca banca’ they usually told me to eff off!

Turn your hearing aid up Luke: it wasn`t Banca Banca they were calling you…

Sorry couldn`t resist that.,

mazzer:

AF1:

muckles:
You can use some fuel cards to pay, which at l least gets you back on your way. I do know a few people who’ve had hefty fines ,or deposits, but if you add up all the trips of all the people I know who drive into Spain or France it does seem to be a rare occasion.

That’s a bit of a reassurance. I only usually do France and Belgium but I think the police might take issue with my Tacho card as I spend the majority of the time in the workshop so large periods unaccounted for and while I wouldn’t mind arguing with vosa over my diary showing the periods spent on other work I think the police over there might be a tad harder to convince.

Get a letter of attestation from your boss don’t think they are a legal requirement anymore but handy to have and hand over with all the rest of your paperwork, it will at least show that you are doing your best to keep it right and could make all the difference

UPDATE to this thread.
I got stopped for a check yesterday by Gendarmes from a different station to our local lot.
They wanted proof of my being on holiday the week before - which I didn’t have. So the Gendarme gave me his e mail address for my boss to send it to him. No hassle and no fine, but it is being asked for.

OwenMoney:

mazzer:

AF1:

muckles:
You can use some fuel cards to pay, which at l least gets you back on your way. I do know a few people who’ve had hefty fines ,or deposits, but if you add up all the trips of all the people I know who drive into Spain or France it does seem to be a rare occasion.

That’s a bit of a reassurance. I only usually do France and Belgium but I think the police might take issue with my Tacho card as I spend the majority of the time in the workshop so large periods unaccounted for and while I wouldn’t mind arguing with vosa over my diary showing the periods spent on other work I think the police over there might be a tad harder to convince.

Get a letter of attestation from your boss don’t think they are a legal requirement anymore but handy to have and hand over with all the rest of your paperwork, it will at least show that you are doing your best to keep it right and could make all the difference

UPDATE to this thread.
I got stopped for a check yesterday by Gendarmes from a different station to our local lot.
They wanted proof of my being on holiday the week before - which I didn’t have. So the Gendarme gave me his e mail address for my boss to send it to him. No hassle and no fine, but it is being asked for.

Holiday, weekend break, off sick, in France you MUST have a " Formulaire d’Attestation d’Activité" to cover the period of time that you are not using your Digi, which has be given to you by your employer, signed by him AND YOU, to show to the authorities here should you be stopped at a road side check.

But if driver leave one company had join to new and have 1 week gap between work that this letter must signed just by new employers or for old employer as well■■?

Andrejs:
But if driver leave one company had join to new and have 1 week gap between work that this letter must signed just by new employers or for old employer as well■■?

If you are between employers, you should have a termination letter to your contract with one employer and then a new contract from the next one, this will suffice, so I would advise to keep these with you. The new employer rarely gives an attestation letter for the time between jobs as it isn’t his responsibility and the previous employer wont give you an attestation, as he wont know when you are going to start again.

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. :wink: