The nice Swiss Police

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS EURO DRIVING FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Have just been reading about , the latest method
that the swiss police are now putting in use to catch
al those who try to defy the rules as regards , the
offical Length,Height, Width of a commerical
vehicle for Switzerland,The Nidwaildner police
have been useing their new lasar unit to confirm
and checks vehicles, this allows a quicker and
more efficent way, than the old system of a the
tape measure and measureing pole which up to
the introduction of the lasar unit was being used.
have a german newspaper report below.

HERE

BY the way the price of the unit was 250,000Ch francs
so be prepared for more controls and perhaps higher
fines to recover they costs,

2

think kindle should say about when he got stopped and nicked by them

bloody swiss

3

Whilst we’re waiting for kindle’s story, I’ll keep you entertained with one of my own…

Having read Pete’s newspaper link, I can honestly say that the Swiss have had laser measuring technology since at least the 80’s. :open_mouth:
As written in Pete’s link, drivers have long suspected that Swiss measuring tapes are calibrated in far shorter centimeters than everybody else’s.

I have to confess that I was once a serial (overheight) offender in Switzerland. :blush:
The Swiss fine was preferable to the Italian fine for the same offence, so we went by the scenic route.:grimacing:
Once over the Italin border, we waited for the exemption contained in our night permit to come into effect. :laughing: :laughing: :smiley:

I’ve had the misfortune to be a victim of an ingeniously fiendish Swiss height measuring device. Once, on the ascent to the St Gottard tunnel, innocently plying my trade in the direction of Italy, a couple of nice Swiss police persons pulled me over so that I could assist them with their enquiries. :open_mouth:

I was promptly busted and relieved of FF440. Yes “FF” :open_mouth:
You see, they’re so helpful that they had a currency converter and were prepared to accept French Francs. They even gave me a pukka receipt, for the exact amount in FF, that said I had the option of appealing the fine. Wasn’t that nice of them? Appeal… yeah right, TBF they had me dead to rights for 20cm too high.

The strange part of this tale is that I knew of a ‘laser’ type height indicator part way up that hill. I know this, because I’ve personally set it off more than once, but didn’t get pulled for it. Once triggered by an overheight vehicle, it made a very loud noise similar to a shotgun, and just as loud. The nice police persons, knowing that there was nowhere for you to go, would simply wait for you to arrive at the tunnel entrance at the top of the hill. :frowning:

On the fateful day, I thought there’d be no problem, because I hadn’t actually set off the alarm. Once pulled, I explained in polite and good German, that the height indicator hadn’t sounded. To no avail. The “shrunken” telescopic measuring staff was produced from their car boot, and hey presto, yours truly got yet another ticket. :frowning:

TBF, considering all the times I’d got away with it, you might say that it was poetic justice, and I might just agree. :wink:

A little too high… :wink:

4

i had one yesterday 2cm to high at basel. bang on 4mtr at stadt rhine work that one out. it shrunk in 2 km. wow. got money back anyway just had an email to confirm. €350.00 fine. (makes the coffee advert gesture)

5

I got pulled one week in a control heading out of basel (big layby with a good cafe in going towards a tunnel?), out came the measuring stick… too high you must pay… so im on the phone to Lamprecht who rang RH to confirm payment. Three hours later when theyd argued it all out the polizei came back and let me go. (After confirmation of payment of course)
The next week i was sent to switzerland again… RH were quite a recognisable company :laughing: .
The same layby. The same polizei running the control again. I remember the fine being a different amount despite me having an identical tilt on :laughing: :laughing:
I was sent to Italy most of the time after that :wink:

6

dieseldave:
I was promptly busted and relieved of FF440. Yes “FF” :open_mouth:
You see, they’re so helpful that they had a currency converter and were prepared to accept French Francs.

And they also take credit cards, they carry a swipe machine in their car.

That was for speeding, while heading up to the Gotthard en route to Italy, 7km over the 80 km limit. 300 CHF, which was around £115 at the time.

7

Coffeeholic:

dieseldave:
I was promptly busted and relieved of FF440. Yes “FF” :open_mouth:
You see, they’re so helpful that they had a currency converter and were prepared to accept French Francs.

And they also take credit cards, they carry a swipe machine in their car.

That was for speeding, while heading up to the Gotthard en route to Italy, 7km over the 80 km limit. 300 CHF, which was around £115 at the time.

There wasn’t much danger of us getting done for speeding, cos we had SK Mercs, and the two diggers put us near the Swiss GVW limit of 28t as it was at the time. :laughing: :laughing:

:open_mouth: I seem to remember the address of the Uri Polizei Kommando in Altdorf on the ticket too. :laughing: :laughing:
IIRC, that was the address to which any appeal should initially be sent.

:grimacing: That £40ish fine I paid was quite reasonable considering that Brit European and others doing the same job were allegedly being fined half a million Lira (about £250 at the time) for being overheight in Italy. :wink:
:smiley: Happy days. :smiley:

8

i will ad my little story to this …if you don"t mind of course :smiley:

Whilst on route to load north os Amsterdam many moons ago , i happen to be driving a G cab merc with a 4.0m Euro Liner on…approaching said Tunnel on the north side of the ring road the barriers came down , mmm , i thought , can"t be me :unamused:

Wrong . No other lorry in sight …oops :blush: So , out comes the local plod with BIG measuring stick…no , trailer is ok , unit ok …much scratching of heads …mmm…ah ha ! Says Plod…your CB ariel is over the 4.0m mark , thats what set the warning barrier off !!!

C.B aerial bent under airkit sharpish , and depart with no fine and rather sheepish look on my face :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

9

yes must be about 3years at the tunnel control italy bound at the gothard was told to park on the weighing scales smiling to myself as i was empty, but the nice swiss police man soon wipped my smile off that will be SF 400 for the 5cm overlong and 350SF to 2cm too high once payed by visa after my boss had agreed to pay me back (which he did) i was allowed to carry on still too long and highafter id payed up I said to him you swiss are only good at making money & clocks
to which he replied AND CHOCOLATE :exclamation: !!!

10

I can add mine too, while we wait.
I was in a wagon and drag for Murfitts and got done twice at the same time.
Once for the wagon at 4.07m, again for the trailer at 4.08.
I think the total fine was about CHF1300 :open_mouth:

I was picked up by the sensor on the way up to the Gottard, they pulled me at the services on the way down, northbound.

11

i’ll add mine as well, got took off the motorway going up the first big hill after leaving basel heading south, again for murfitts, with a drawbar, loaded with tyres for delivery in swiss.
got took into the police station halfway up the hill and told i was overweight.
when i asked what the fine was they replied none, but if i’d got to the tunnel it would have been big but they had stopped me before.
i now knew why i was never pulled running heavy into swiss every week, tipping at pratteln,
you are allowed to run so far into swiss before its illegal
i checked with the police that it wasn’t illegal to run in swiss without an underrun bar, and they said it was ok, so i dropped the trailer and set off to my delivery point an hour away, dropped my box and went back skelly, picked up my trailer and moved the box from the trailer to the unit and away i went, no fine.
when i asked the police why they hadn’t let me go to the tunnel and then fine me, he laughed, rubbed his stomach and said “it was dinner time when we stopped you”

12

sorry for hijacking this thread :blush:

its just i’ve been asked by a customer who i run a lot of exhibitions for to go to switzerland in my 3.5 van instead of taking a 7.5 … times are tight so there taking a lot smaller show that comfortably fits in the van weight and size wise.
my question is normally i go over via mulhouse…but if i go with the van i’m led to believe that the sunday restrictions dont apply, but are the customs still open saturday evening/sunday for the carnet :confused:
i know you highly informed lot will be able to put me in the right direction… :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: thanks…

13

Don’t treat the 3.5 tonner as a non hgv. Grumpytrucker on LDF was telling us how a guy from his firm got to the border in a 3.5t and got fined and escorted back to Austrias for not having the correct paperwork. Not sure of the exact details… maybe you could ask him.

14

as the Bear said , you will be classed as a comercual vehicle
and the customs and spedition may just not be working on
Sundays, have a look at the swiss site it should help you out it
is available in english and has lots of information, on the site,

15

thanks for the info…i’d always go with the correct paperwork, with it being exhibition its on a carnet, but it does have to be signed when leaving the eu and entering switzerland :frowning:
brit pete , have you got a link for the swiss site ?

cheers…

16

TRY this FIRST

it is adirect link to the customs site,

and this is for road conditiions etc etc

HERE

17

On the subject of Swiss Police, one of PTM’s drivers actually got banned from Switzerland for 3 months, although it was fully justified. In fact i do believe he is a member of these Forum’s, lets see if he appears… Where are you JV??

twisterboy:
sorry for hijacking this thread :blush:

its just i’ve been asked by a customer who i run a lot of exhibitions for to go to switzerland in my 3.5 van instead of taking a 7.5 … times are tight so there taking a lot smaller show that comfortably fits in the van weight and size wise.
my question is normally i go over via mulhouse…but if i go with the van i’m led to believe that the sunday restrictions dont apply, but are the customs still open saturday evening/sunday for the carnet :confused:
i know you highly informed lot will be able to put me in the right direction… :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: thanks…

I dont know the exact time the border shuts, but i know they are open quite late, as a lot of Hueber’s Swiss Drivers run down thru France saturday afternoons, and manage to get cleared and home before they shut, so i asuume they must be open until at least 1900, if not later. Someone else may know the exact time they close.

18

I actually got nicked by the Swiss Police for taking too much diesel into Switzerland from Germany in April this year. Got a pull at Rhienfelden, and it turns out that in a Swiss truck you can only take 400litres into Swis from outside the country, that rule does not apply to other trucks, only Swiss registered ones. They dipped the tanks and deemed i was 820 litres over the top, the truck only held 1100!!! I tried telling them that, but they wouldnt listen, so 900CHF later, i was on my way… Luckily the boss paid it, and told me that in all the years he has been in business, i was the first to ever be nicked for it, so the following week it was business as normal!!! :laughing:

19

Thought I would add one of my tales of woe of the few times I met the Swiss Police in the 5 or so years I transited their lands. Altdorf and Erstfeld featured frequently but I only actually paid a small fine (£45 or so) there once for about 200kg’s overweight.
I got stopped at Stans Police station once and wound up paying a fine of £300 or so for being .05cm too wide. The truck measured 2.55 metres (fridge size) against the Swiss and euro norm of 2.50 for curtainsiders. I had argued my way out of a speeding charge and overlength but had no defence for the overwidth. I was given a letter directing me to return to Basel, but the really nice copper said he would not look which direction I turned when I left the station, so I turned right and headed for Italy looking in my mirrors all the way to Chiasso. I remember I paid the fine in bits of Sterling, FF,CHF, and Lire. He was probably too busy counting the bloody money to look what I was doing.

20

Grumpygraeme:
I remember I paid the fine in bits of Sterling, FF,CHF, and Lire. He was probably too busy counting the bloody money to look what I was doing.

:smiley: Hi Grumpygraeme, WELCOME. :grimacing:

I remember guys paying Swiss fines with bits and bobs of various currencies too.
TBF to the Swiss police, they didn’t stitch us up with the exchange rates either, cos when I got done, they even showed me the rates in a newspaper. :open_mouth:

IIRC, part of the border crossing procedure was to be weighed in and out of Swiss, so you did quite well to get away with your ‘extra’ 200kgs, or did you refuel whilst you were there?
Not likely, but I thought I’d ask. :wink: