on the implementation in 2017-2018 of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport and of Directive 2002/15/EC on the organisation of the working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities (30th report from the Commission on the implementation of the social legislation relating to road transport)

Introduction

This report gives an overview of the implementation of the EU social rules in road transport in the Member States for the period of 1 January 2017 until 31 December 2018. It highlights the key challenges in enforcement and application of the relevant legal provisions, which are set out in the following four legislative acts:

1) Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 (also known as the Driving Time Regulation) establishing the minimum requirements on daily and weekly driving times, breaks and daily and weekly rest periods;

2) Directive 2002/15/EC (also known as the Road Transport Working Time Directive) laying down the rules on the organisation of the working time of mobile workers. It establishes the requirements on maximum weekly working times, minimum breaks in work and night time work. It applies to drivers within the scope of the Driving Time Regulation;

3) Directive 2006/22/EC (also known as the Enforcement Directive) establishing minimum levels of roadside checks and controls at the premises of transport undertakings to verify compliance with the provisions of the Driving Time Regulation;

4) Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 (also known as the Tachograph Regulation) setting the requirements on the installation and use of tachographs in vehicles within the scope of the Driving Time Regulation.

This report, based on Article 17 of the Driving Time Regulation and Article 13 of the Road Transport Working Time Directive , comprises quantitative and qualitative data on checks carried out by the Member States’ control authorities at the roadside and at the premises of undertakings, as well as on offences detected.

The report is structured into three sections: Section I provides the analysis of the national data on checks and offences in the implementation of Directive 2006/22/EC and Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 whereas Section II gives a descriptive outline of the implementation by the Member States of Directive 2002/15/EC. Section III draws the main conclusions of this report. A Commission Staff Working document complements the Commission report with supplementary information on penalties, cooperation between Member States, comments from enforcement authorities, and more detailed statistics.

Data submission

The national reports on the implementation of the provisions of Directive 2002/15/EC and Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 must be submitted by 30 September of the year following the end of the two-year period concerned, by means of the revised standard reporting form established by the Commission Implementing Decision of 30 March 2017 . The deadline for submitting reports covering years 2017-2018 expired on 30 September 2019.

All Member States have submitted their national data, though many not timely. The quality of the data continues to improve as regards Regulation (EC) No 561/2006. All Member States provided the requested breakdown of detailed statistics on controls of compliance carried out at the roadside and at the premises. However, some did not provide data sorted by the requested categories, e.g. data sorted by type of tachograph and type of offences.

As regards the information on the implementation of Directive 2002/15/EC, not all Member States have submitted the required information and only some Member States provided statistical data on controls and their outcomes . The lack of quantitative data from Member States makes an assessment difficult. Therefore, the Commission insists that extensive qualitative and quantitative data about the implementation of Directive 2002/15/EC and its enforcement is provided for the next reporting period in order to satisfy the requirements set out in Article 13 of Directive 2002/15/EC and Article 17 of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006.