Just read in one of the trucking mags a driver fined for 15 minutes over driving time.Once i ran the “Gauntlet” to get past the border,prior to a 4 day truck ban,to prevent being parked up till Tuesday morning,then drop some jet skis to the Algarve.
toby1234abc:
Just read in one of the trucking mags a driver fined for 15 minutes over driving time.Once i ran the “Gauntlet” to get past the border,prior to a 4 day truck ban,to prevent being parked up till Tuesday morning,then drop some jet skis to the Algarve.
There will have been more to it than that for such a large fine, probably a summation of various infringements
Vascoingles:
toby1234abc:
Just read in one of the trucking mags a driver fined for 15 minutes over driving time.Once i ran the “Gauntlet” to get past the border,prior to a 4 day truck ban,to prevent being parked up till Tuesday morning,then drop some jet skis to the Algarve.There will have been more to it than that for such a large fine, probably a summation of various infringements
Probably gave the plod some lip in the process, slipping the odd F+B between words.
Always a bad idea.
Doubtful
the maximum that a fine should be for only 10 mins over and that is if you have really ■■■■■■ them off or caught them on a bad day is 1501 euros, to get to 6000 euros plus you would most definitley need an accumulation of various offences
Is it only France that can put points on an UK licence holder for offences committed on their soil.Heard the Italians would keep Uk licences to send them to DVLC for totting up,not sure if that was true or not.It does help if you try to speak the local language,any attempt would gain more respect,a shake of the hand,goes a long way,when get stopped.The Gendarmarie are mostly fluent in English and other tongues,and will wait to hear a driver rant and rave and swear at them,to turn around to speak English to the driver,hence the fine would rise,and a more detailed inspection of all the paperwork,truck maintenance and drivers records etc,would ensue.I knew of a company,that going home up,the forest road to Bordeaux,all the wheels fell off,not tighten up after being changed in the UK,it was rumoured that for each wheel that came off,a fine applied to each,plus a loading charge for each new one to be fitted and the high rate call out recovery,it may have ran a bill of thousands.The tachograph inspection garages,off the motorways at Tours and Poitiers,i would see trucks being inspected,with the Genadarmes present.
In Germany you get your own special account started in the German version of the
DVLA it is in FLENSBURG ; You get sent aletter to inform you when you have won first prize in the Driving BAN for GERMANY , which is for TWO YEARS I have been told,
I have to admit i have heard of some horror stories regarding fines issued for hours and tacho offences in spain over the last couple of years,a danish driver was telling me one of his mates got done over 5000euros for driving for 5h15m before taking a 45m break,heard another story lately of a driver who had miscalculated a split break-he had taken 13m and then 28m instead of a full 15m and 30m-he got stopped and fined 156euros in france for that offence but got stoped again at the first weighbridge when he crossed border into spain at irun and got fined 3100!!!
Also heard about a driver who had inadvertently entered the wrong finish and start region on his digi-tacho and got fined 2001euros by the guardia civil!!
You have to ask the question are the spanish making a genuine effort to improve road safety or is this just a means of making revenue for the country?
CALUM:
I have to admit i have heard of some horror stories
basically what most of them are
CALUM:
a danish driver was telling me one of his mates got done over 5000euros for driving for 5h15m before taking a 45m break,
Own fault then I would have said
CALUM:
heard another story lately of a driver who had miscalculated a split break-he had taken 13m and then 28m instead of a full 15m and 30m-he got stopped and fined 156euros in france for that offence but got stoped again at the first weighbridge when he crossed border into spain at irun and got fined 3100!!!
should have refused to pay, you cannot be done for the same offence twice
CALUM:
Also heard about a driver who had inadvertently entered the wrong finish and start region on his digi-tacho and got fined 2001euros by the guardia civil!!
nah maximum fine for that would have been about 300 euros not classed as serious
CALUM:
You have to ask the question are the spanish making a genuine effort to improve road safety or is this just a means of making revenue for the country?
for years people have been criticising and laughing at them for being too lax, this is the result
Have no proof,but heard Portugal was getting fined by the powers to be,for failing to enforce driving regulations in accordance with eu law and harmonisation of all eu countries.
I’d always thought stories of big fines in Spain were just stories until this week.
Last Friday , forgot to change cards on double manned truck … result € 3301 fine for driving 10 minutes on wrong card even though truck had been stationary for 3 hours waiting to load. Other driver sitting next to me.All card legal. 830 in the evening , payable in cash, truck immobilised.
Got that one sorted out , but am now sitting at Irun having been stopped for …
Copy of Authorisation,saying it is not original. It is original but has been laminated for protection … € 4600
Not recording car journey of 100 kms on chart to collect truck after 4 days at home … € 2100
Speed limiter not correct. Calibrated when truck was MOT d in Holland last month. € 1500
Scotsman parked next to me , download off card showed overspeed 95 kph for 5 kms 10 days ago., € 1500
Waiting in lorry prison to speak to lawyer in Madrid and Scania in the morning.
My advice to anyone planning to drive to Spain D O N T DO IT !!! THEY ARE OUT TO GET YOUR MONEY
Interesting post David, I’ll try to keep up to speed with this.
Whether the € 8100 is paid or not, I am seriously qustioning the viability of running my trucks to Spain ( even though i live there ) , given the possibility of another massive fine for nothing whenever you are stopped.
Any comments on that ■■
how the hell did they even pick up on the car journey, never mind try to fine you 2100 on what must be circumstantial evidence? the community authorisation thing seems a ridiculous amount too if it’s kosher but just laminated?
i had 2 parked in irun thursday/friday - although everything is in theory 100% legal it makes me nervous I must admit - we all know if they want to find something they usually can 
David,we used to call them “telephone book” fines due to the large numbers.It is possible to reduce the fine,and demand to see each law in writing in the official book at the Police station,i think it is exit 3 on the Irun to San Sebastion autoroute.I was fined thousands for an attestation or activity paper from my boss,where he used a biro to write information on it,making it invalid,even though prior to shipping out,in an email,i demanded the form to done on the computer,with no handwritting on it.
I was grounded for 7 days at the Autogrill,near the last Spanish peage,drawing 300 euros per day.(Max daily limit.),to pay the fine,some running money,of which the boss refunded when i got back.
The transport office,like the VOSA equilavent,is in the centre of San Sebastion,buses and trains run regular.To sort the fine out.VascoIngles could point you out for translators.
toby1234abc:
David,we used to call them “telephone book” fines due to the large numbers.It is possible to reduce the fine,and demand to see each law in writing in the official book at the Police station,i think it is exit 3 on the Irun to San Sebastion autoroute.I was fined thousands for an attestation or activity paper from my boss,where he used a biro to write information on it,making it invalid,even though prior to shipping out,in an email,i demanded the form to done on the computer,with no handwritting on it.
I was grounded for 7 days at the Autogrill,near the last Spanish peage,drawing 300 euros per day.(Max daily limit.),to pay the fine,some running money,of which the boss refunded when i got back.
The transport office,like the VOSA equilavent,is in the centre of San Sebastion,buses and trains run regular.To sort the fine out.VascoIngles could point you out for translators.
I did all I could to help David but with out much success, tried phoning both Police and Transport Authority and got short thrift, expalined to David where the police station was at Oyartzun but they virtually just ignored him.
The best way to get this stopped is appeal each fine, obviously you cannot do it personally or you would have no time to work.
There are agencies who specialise (for a fee) in getting fines sorted and paid immediately and as a matter of procedure they automatically appeal each and every fine and are usually quite successful in getting them reduced and refunded, we uesd to get oicked on a lot until we started using an agent to appeal them and now we do not get so many of the dubious ones anymore.
Another new one is when carrying ADR you now have to have a small plastic sheet measuring 1 meter by 1 meter for covering up drains, around the Vitoria area they are fining drivers by saying that the plastic sheet is not thick enough, NO WHERE IN THE APPROPRIATE LEGISLATION EUROPEAN OR SPANISH is the thickness of the sheet even mentioned
Vascoingles:
Another new one is when carrying ADR you now have to have a small plastic sheet measuring 1 meter by 1 meter for covering up drains, around the Vitoria area they are fining drivers by saying that the plastic sheet is not thick enough, NO WHERE IN THE APPROPRIATE LEGISLATION EUROPEAN OR SPANISH is the thickness of the sheet even mentioned
I’m all for sticking to the rules but where DO these people get off? Is it pure money-making, do they want trucks not to transit their area, or what?
Shame we’re at the opposite end of the scale - a Moldovan running with a magnet on gets a £200 fine at Rochdale recently, it stinks!
By the was Vas, did you manage to find out if those fines were for what David thought, they still seem exhorbitant? 
The fines were for what he thought and as far as I can see with what he showed me when I drove out to him the only ones that were justifiable were the speed limiter which was wrongly adjusted (he should reclaim that from Scania in Holland) and the one with the forgetting to change over drivers.
The permit was 100% legal and there should never have been a fine for travelling to the truck, I have never heard of that one being enforced over here before.
The last couple of years they have been going well OTT with the fines but then again considering the amount of truck accidents here mainly caused by illegally running Portuguese and Spanish who registered trucks in Portugal to evade taxes and the amount of flak that received from Brussles for being too lax then it was only going to go one way.
As Vascoingles says the number of serious accidents involving trucks in Spain over the past years has been horrendous - and it was plain to see that many were caused by drivers falling asleep. I have to say over the past year or so these seem to have diminished. Maybe the fear of large fines and strict enforcement is working.
It was not only Spanish and Portuguese drivers to blame though, a good many other drivers had the attitude that once in Spain you could do pretty well what you liked.
Spot on there to help David out,well done Vasco.Fair point on Portuguese/Spanish firms,but use Bulgarian/Romanian drivers,not knocking that,you see tractor units with those nations on the reg plates.On about 700 to 800 euros a month wages.
Its posts like this that make me grateful I spend most of my time doing Italy! Been stopped 5 times, they just want card in head at which point they will try and fine you for speeding, 80kmh limit, when it becomes apparent you have no money they tell you to get lost or they just take what you do have. Well thats my experience anyway. (Fine is €390 btw)