Was told by one of our drivers on tuesday when we were in den haag tipping that one of the lads last week had been fined.He said 600quid but he must of mean’t euros i would of thought. by the french for having a weeks holiday and not having a covering letter from the company for the missing info on his digi card.I was panicking at this point as i had just had a week of a couple of weeks ago and i did’nt have no letter.luckily got back without getting pulled but just wondered if anyone else had heard of this law>though it to be a bit extreme.
daftvader:
Was told by one of our drivers on tuesday when we were in den haag tipping that one of the lads last week had been fined.He said 600quid but he must of mean’t euros i would of thought. by the french for having a weeks holiday and not having a covering letter from the company for the missing info on his digi card.I was panicking at this point as i had just had a week of a couple of weeks ago and i did’nt have no letter.luckily got back without getting pulled but just wondered if anyone else had heard of this law>though it to be a bit extreme.
This is the legislation and page 2 is the layout of the form!
eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/Lex … 081:EN:PDF
Strangely enough France isn’t mentioned on this list of EU members 
Am I the only one that finds the concept behind this a bit disturbing?
Isn’t it enough that if there is a gap on our card, and we don’t have tacho charts for the period, then we obviously haven’t been working? Are we really distrusted that much?
I’ve never heard of anything like that being enforced here - and I think my boss would laugh if I asked for a paper to show that I’d been on holiday.
One of our drivers was done €600 in France for the same thing a few weeks ago.
As to the original poster, I am surprised he had not heard of this rule?
I remember a few years back, the good man himself, Mr Coffee, put a link to a lovely piece of paper called an ‘Activity Confirmation’ on this very site. I naturally downloaded it because you just never know when it might be needed 
.
Any time I have had time off, I make sure I have the duly signed paper saying so and why. It is needed in this country as well as abroad.
Back in about '98 I was fined 600 francs per missing disc for the 6 I didn’t have whilst I had had my time off, the annoying thing was that my boss always gave us the official FTA cover notes (this was before the EEC attestation form was unified) but on this occasion he had brought my wagon down to me after loading it in ■■■■■■■ & he had forgotten the letter. Total fine 3600ff, which at the time was about £350, Escorted into St Die Gendarmerie & then to the hole in the wall to draw the cash on my bosses credit card.
Is obviously true then.Thanks for the links there wheelnut.As you said no mention of france on there.I’ve only been going over for the past 7-8months.And that only occasionally.Did check the stickies for documents i would need.But did’nt notice anything about a note from teacher for having a week of.Luckily i got away with it this time. 
This will be the truth,it is called an attestation letter,must be carried & the information must be typed in & not filled in by pen.Spain are very hot on these & dishing out BIG fines for not having them.
On the subject of fines be careful where you park for the night in France 2 of us heading south on the N10 last Friday night pulled in a truck park @ midnight,nowhere to park so pulled out on to N10 to first pull in,no signs saying no parking,15 minutes left to go for night break to finish old bill pulls in on his motorbike & nicks us 35 euros each because the lay by had an orange S o S phone in it.He said emergency only we told him that although we were unaware we could not park there,it was an emergency as my mate was out of time & truck park full.
Not his problem he told us & got his book out there was no way he was going to warn us & send us on our way.My mate paid his money & reciept i tried him for 20 euros with no ticket,he said NON & pointed @ his badge.
Paid up,he shook our hands told us Bon Voyage & rode off into the nice rain that was going to get him wet…
amazing … i’ve never heard of this rule jeeeesh its like big brother … 
i think i should start paying attention…
Think i need to pay more attention to bowser. .Just had a look through the sticky relating to docs and equip needed and see asstention letter mentioned at the bottom of the page with all the other additional paperwork you might need.Will certainly make sure i have one if i go over within the next couple weeks.Did hear of people getting fined for not parking in proper places.I myself on tuesday night did’nt get parked up till ten in one of the laybys about 20ks from veurne.It was near on full then and ended up parking up on the path along with couple others.So i suppose i was lucky there to.Makes you wonder if it all worth it with the amount of money they fine you.
Scary…its only when reading threads like this that one realises how much driving around Europe has changed. When I was doing it throughout the 80s and into the early 90s it was FUN!!!
Now reading this I’m glad i don’t do Euro driving anymore. When do you cease to be a truck driver and become a member of the general public, going on holiday, going down the pub, taking a few days off with your family??
Must you account for EVERY hour of your life (personal and private) regardless of what you are doing to satisfy the demands of the Euro police■■?
Surely there cant be any other occupation on this planet requiring such subservient and slavish adherence to alleged “legislation”■■
Got pulled up by the Bag in germany a couple of weeks ago, Bad Autobahn Gestapo… went through me with everything, my digi -card matched my attestaition letters and he only found an overspeed on my card which happened in the UK , after an hour of trying to find faults he wished me a good day , he checked my fire extinguiser, my tax, my CMR’s and his big thing was the letter of attestation …if you haven’t got one for the last month of your duties expect a hefty fine
I live and work in France, moving mobile homes, we had a new driver start three weeks ago, and he ran as pilot for two weeks to learn the ropes and routes. He was asked to move a 10 footer on the Thursday with the four wheeler rigid we have, so only had a chart for that one day. He was pulled the following Tuesday and asked for his charts, the Gendarme asked what he did over the weekend as he only had the charts for the Thusday, Monday and the current day, he said he wasn’t working the Friday,Sat,Sun, but the Gendarms said he could not prove he wasn’ t working so he fined him, 2000 euros. The boss had to come down to his location with a credit card to pay this, two hours away and she was pleading to reduce the fine, but he wasn’t having it. We all now get a letter from the boss for every day we are not working, and he hopes this will suffice.
Sapper
bigbird201:
his big thing was the letter of attestation …if you haven’t got one for the last month of your duties expect a hefty fine
Strange. A letter of attestation is not, to my knowledge, mandatory in Germany.
" i tried him for 20 euros with no ticket,he said NON & pointed @ his badge."
How things change havent done euro since the 80s, a French plod not takeing a bung whatever next a french driver not haveing some wine with his lunch
Inselaffe:
bigbird201:
his big thing was the letter of attestation …if you haven’t got one for the last month of your duties expect a hefty fineStrange. A letter of attestation is not, to my knowledge, mandatory in Germany.
It’s not, and in all the controls I have had in Germany in the last 20 odd years I have never once been asked for one, including in recent weeks when I had taken time off and was stopped.
Sorry Neil but you are wrong if you do not fulfil certain
criteria then you will be asked to contribute to the Fund
mate, it is on the BAG site and unless you follow the rules
exactly then you can and will be dealt with, Many German
Firms issue a form for their drivers who have had a weekend off at home
just to be sure they do not fall foul of a eager beaver police or
BAG officer, as time lost in clearing up a problem will/may
cost money or even a contract in some cases,
Here is the linkHERE
They make a point of stating a form is not
required for Sundays and bank holidays and
that the DIGI-CARD must SHOW when you take
WEEKLY REST ,If this does or can not be done
you need the form
they also suggest that when doing International
journeys a form should be filled out for the
weekend rest when working outside of Germany
hope this helps ,
brit pete:
Sorry Neil but you are wrong if you do not fulfil certain
criteria then you will be asked to contribute to the Fund
mate, it is on the BAG site and unless you follow the rules
exactly then you can and will be dealt with, Many German
Firms issue a form for their drivers who have had a weekend off at home
just to be sure they do not fall foul of a eager beaver police or
BAG officer, as time lost in clearing up a problem will/may
cost money or even a contract in some cases,
Here is the linkHEREThey make a point of stating a form is not
required for Sundays and bank holidays and
that the DIGI-CARD must SHOW when you take
WEEKLY REST ,If this does or can not be done
you need the form
they also suggest that when doing International
journeys a form should be filled out for the
weekend rest when working outside of Germany
hope this helps ,
It looks like they have designed a special word document for the job too, just like the one Neil uploaded a couple of years ago.
bag.bund.de/cln_008/SharedDo … l?nn=12826
bag.bund.de/cae/servlet/cont … 88529DD399
Makes no difference though as Neil already said Germany do not require an attestation form, just like in August 2009 
It seems there is one important paragraph we have missed.
The form of attestation should be used only if the
tachograph records, for objective technical reasons, are
unable to demonstrate that the provisions of Regulation
(EC) No 561/2006 have been respected.
Zetorpilot:
Isn’t it enough that if there is a gap on our card, and we don’t have tacho charts for the period, then we obviously haven’t been working? Are we really distrusted that much?
.
You could be working for a firm like ours and have done some days on a van.