EN    EN  
 EUROPEAN  
COMMISSION 
Brussels, 21.11.2014  
COM(2014) 709 final 
  
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 
on the implementation in 2011-2012 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 person s performing mobile road 
transport ac tivities 
(27th report from the Commi ssion on the implementation of the social legislation 
relating to road  transport) 
{SWD(2014) 342 final}  
 
2 
 I. Introduction  
This report reviews the implementation by Member States of the four interrelated legislative 
acts establishing social rules in road transport and their enforcement regime. These legislative 
acts are: Regulation (EC) No 561/20061, which establishes rules on driving times, breaks and 
rest periods for professiona l drivers; Directive 2006/22/EC2, which determines minimum 
requirements for enforcement of these rules; Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/853 on 
recording equipment, i.e. main tool to control the drivers' co mpliance with social rules and 
Directive 2002/15/EC4, which sets out complementary pr ovisions on the organisation of the 
working time of persons performing mobile road  transport activities (here-after "the Road 
Transport Working Time Directive).  
Article 17 of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 requ ires Member States to communicate every 
two years the necessary information to enab le the Commission to draw up a report on the 
application of that Regulation and the developmen ts in the fields in question. Article 13 of 
Directive 2002/15/EC provides th at Member States should re port to the Commission on the 
implementation of the Directive, indicating the views of the two sides of the industry. The 
reports on Directive 2002/15/EC and Regulatio n (EC) No 561/2006 can be presented in one 
singly document as both legislative acts c over the same two-year reporting period and 
establish complementary rule s for professional drivers. 
This report covers the 2011-2012 timeframe. It is based mainly on the national reports, for 
which the submission deadline expired on 30 September 2013. Its aim is to provide an 
overview of how Member States have implem ented the above-mentioned set of legislative 
acts and to highlight the key cha llenges in enforcement and appli cation of the rules in force. 
The report contains both quantitative and qualita tive data on checks carried out at roadside 
and premises, offences detected as well as  information on the implementation of Road 
Transport Working Time Directive. The Commission report is complemented by a 
                                                            
1 Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the 
harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport and amending Council Regulations (EEC) 
No 3821/85 and (EC) No 2135/98 and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 (OJ L 102, 11.4.2006, p. 
1) 
2 Directive 2006/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on minimum 
conditions for the implementation of Council Regulations (EEC) No 3820/85 and (EEC) No 3821/85 concerning 
social legislation relating to road transport activities and repealing Council Directive 88/599/EEC (OJ L 102, 
11.4.2006, p. 36) 
3 Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 of 20 December 1985 on record ing equipment in road transport (OJ L 
370, 31.12.1985, p. 8), repealed by Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 February 2014 on tachographs in road transport, repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 on 
recording equipment in road transport and amending Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 of the European Parliament 
and of the Council on the harmonisation of certain soci al legislation relating to road transport (OJ L 60, 
28.2.2014, p. 1) 
4 Directive 2002/15/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2002 on the organisation of 
the working time of persons performing mobile ro ad transport activities (OJ L 80, 23.3.2002, p. 35)  
 
3 
 Commission Staff Wo rking Document that contains suppl ementary information on penalties, 
cooperation between Member States, comments fr om enforcement authorities and detailed 
statistical data.  
The report comprises four secti ons that cover various aspects of implementation of social 
legislation. Section I summarizes the quality and timeliness of national data submissions. 
Section II provides for the fully fledged analysis of the national quantitat ive data provided on 
checks and offences, whereas Section III gives a descriptive outline of the Member States 
implementation of Directive 2002/15/EC. Section IV presents the main conclusions drawn.  
Objectives and key provisions of social legislation in road tran sport, as well as other aspects 
and detailed statistics concer ning the results of checks carri ed out, are described in the 
Commission Staff Worki ng Document accompanying this report.    
Data submission 
The national reports on the implementation of  the provisions of Directive 2002/15/EC and 
Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 shoul d be submitted by means of the standard form set out in 
Commission Decision 2009/810/EC5. This standard form combines the reporting 
requirements of these both legislative acts, an d by means of an interactive reporting format 
gathers quantitative and qualitative data that  constitutes a crucial input to this report. 
The Commission notes that in general Member States provided national reports of better 
quality and timeliness then in the previous years, and would like to encourage them to 
continue on this path. This applies in particul ar to data on the implementation of Regulation 
(EC) No 561/2005. More in-depth description of data submission is included in the 
Commission Staff Work ing Document accompanying th is report (hereafter "the 
accompanying document").  
II. Analysis of data on implementati on of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006  
1. Checks 
According to Article 2 of Directive 2006/22/EC , the minimum number of checks in 2011 and 
2012 should cover at least 3% of days worked by drivers of vehicles fa lling within the scope 
of Regulations (EC) No 561/2006 and (EEC) No 3821/856.  
                                                            
5 Commission Decision 2009/810 of 22 September 2008 drawing up the standard reporting form referred to in 
Article 17 of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 289, 
5.11.2009, p.9) 
6 The minimum rate is calculated separately for each Member State, based on the total number of days worked 
per driver during the two-year period and the total number of vehicles subject to these Regulations. These two 
factors are multiplied, which equals to a total number of days worked by drivers of vehicles falling  within the 
scope of these Regulations and out of this amount a 3%  is determined that constitutes the minimum number of 
checks that should be performed in each Member State.    
 
4 
 
 
Graph 1 – Total number of working days checked per Member States  
Graph 1 gives an overview of the number of work ing days checked in each Member State, in 
the current and previo us reporting periods. On average the total number of working days 
checked in the EU noted an increase of 8.7% from almost 146 million to around 158.6 
million working days checked . This rise confirms the gene ral commitment among Member 
States to enhance the controls of compliance with the social rules in road transport. It is worth 
noting that all checks were perf ormed by significantly lower nu mber of enforcement officers 
for all Member States. 
Looking closely at the number of working days  effectively checked in relation to the 
minimum number of working days to be checked (Graph 2), it is noticeable that the majority 
of Member States performed more checks th an required by Directive 2006/22/EC.  Member 
States such as Greece, the Netherlands, Denm ark, Italy and Latvia, who did not meet the 
threshold, are called upon to take appropriate corrective measures to remedy this situation. 
The Commission will assess the necessity of ta king action in order to  assure the correct 
application of Directive 2006/22/EC.  
Detailed description of compliance with the threshold is presented in the accompanying 
document.  
 
5 
 
 
Graph 2: Percentage of working days checked per Member State 
Regarding the type of controls, Article 2 of Directive 2006/22/EC sets out the ratio between 
the number of roadside controls (in terms of wo rking days to be checked) and the checks at 
premises, which should amount to at leas t 30% and 50% respectively. It should be 
emphasised that pursuant to Article 2 of Di rective 2006/22/EC the calculation of this 
proportion is based on the number of checks actually performed by each Member State and 
not on the minimum number of working days to  be checked. Nevertheless, for the current 
reporting period most of the controls  are performed at the roadside. On average 80% of all 
controls took place at the roadside, which shows slight improvement from 82% in the 
previous reporting period.  Only Ireland was below the th reshold for roadside checks.  
1.1 Roadside checks  
In total over the period of 2011 and 2012 more than 8.67 million vehicles and approximately 
8.7 million drivers were controlled during checks at the roadside. These values stand for a 
decrease of respectively 11.3% a nd 19.4% in relation to the prev ious reporting period and are 
caused by corresponding increases in the checks at premises. The reason for a higher number 
of drivers than a number of ve hicles is twofold: the double manning as well as missing data 
on this matter from Denmark on the number  of vehicles checked at roadside.  
Checks in Member States in the majority invo lved national vehicles  and drivers and they 
equalled respectively 69% and 68% of all vehicles or drivers checked at roadside. Only in 
eight Member States, namely Austria, France,  Hungary, Belgium, Lithuania, Luxembourg, 
Malta and Slovenia, the pattern is reversed an d more non-national vehicl es or drivers were 
subject to a control. This in some cases ma y be explained by the si ze or geographic position 
of these Member States. Detailed rates are incorporated in the accompanying document. As 
non-discrimination is one of the fundamental principles of the EU Treaties, the Commission 
may consider taking appropriate measures in or der to ensure the equal treatment of drivers 
                                                            
7 Denmark failed to provide the number of vehicles checked at roadside 
 
6 
 and operators in Member States where the checks  are performed more fre quently in regard to 
non-resident drivers and operators. 
1.2 Checks at premises  
There was a distinctive progre ss in the number of undertakings  checked by Member States, 
which more than doubled in comparison with  the reporting period of 2007-2008. In years 
2011-2012, it amounted to 146 000 8 and rose by 42% as compared  to 103 000 in the previous 
reporting period. Over 31.7 million working days were checked at premises, which signifies 
that the rate of growth slow ed down as an increase between the reporting periods of 2007-
2008 and 2009-2010 equalled to 79%, while it grew  by 20% between the current and the last 
period. The dynamic of these develo pments should be seen in co rrelation with increases of 
minimum thresholds that took place during the previous reporting periods9. Therefore the 
general increase by 8.7% in the number of working days checked both at roadside and 
premises and the decreases in controlled vehicles and drivers at roadside contributed jointly to 
the more intensified activities at premises.  
2. Offences 
All Member States provided data on offences  detected, though with a divergent level of 
details. After a significant and constant growth of offences reported over the previous 6 
years at the European level, which is tied with increases of minimum working days to be 
checked, there is a reversed tendency for the current reporting period which marked a 
decrease of 14% versus the last period  in the number of offences detected.  This number 
should be seen together with the increase of 8.7% in the nu mber of working days checked. In 
real values it shows a decline from 4.5 million offences reported in 2009-2010 to 
approximately 3.9 million in the current reporting period. This change could be interpreted as 
an improved compliance with the provisions of so cial legislation thanks to well-established 
enforcement practices and greate r awareness of social rules am ong drivers. This is based on 
an assumption that tachograph manipulation practic es did not distort sign ificantly the findings 
from the controls. 
The table below shows that propor tions between categor ies of infringements maintain similar 
levels compared with the prev ious reporting periods. The slight  decline observed for offences 
on breaks in driving time and lack  of records for other work is counterbalanced by increases 
in driving time records and recording equipment offences. 
 
                                                            
8 Finland did not provide data on the number of undertakings checked at premises for 2011-2012 reporting 
period. For the period 2009-2010 Finland, Luxembourg, Spain and Sweden did not provide data on the number 
of undertakings checked.   
9 In 2008 the threshold rose from 1% to 2% and in 2010 it grew to 3% whereas no changes in the threshold were 
done in the current reporting period.  
 
7 
  
Period Breaks Rest 
periods Driving 
time Driving 
time 
records Recording 
equipment  Lack/availabili
ty of records 
for other work  
2011-
2012 26% 24% 19% 17% 8% 6% 
2009-
2010 29% 23% 18% 15% 5% 8% 
2007-
2008 30% 25% 20% 14% 10% 1% 
 
Table 1 -  Categories of infringements detect ed at roadside and premises 
 
 
Graph 3 – Categories of infringements de tected at roadside and premises  
Categories of infringements detect ed at roadside and premises ar e described separately in the 
accompanying document.  
Compared to the previous reporting peri od, in 2011-2012 the average rate of offences 
detected declined significantly by 22% and eq ualled to 2.43 offences per 100 working days 
checked. It appears that checks at premises are more e ffective than ad-hoc roadside 
controls  as the detection rate at premises is 3 time s higher than at roadside . It is, however, to 
be noted that in the previous reporting period, the detection ra te at premises was 5 times  
higher as a detection rate at ro adside. This change is due mainly to a considerable drop in 
detection rates at premises from 8.65 in years 2009-2010 to 5.29 in th is reporting period. 
There are vast disparities in o ffence detection rates at premis es per 100 days checked between 
Member States ranging from 0.01 in Bulgaria to 22.38 in Germany. It seems that the change 
 
8 
 in the EU average offence detection rate at premises is affected by a significant  decline (by 
27%) in the number of reported offences at premises in Germany, which in this reporting 
period still had the largest share of all offences  detected at premises in Europe (53.9%).  
 
 
Graph 4 – Number of offences detected per 100 working days checked in 2007-2008, 
2009-2010 and 2011-2012 
Despite divergent fluctuations in different Memb er States regarding the number of offences 
detected per reporting period10, on average there is a distinctive decrease in the number of 
offences reported, which is even more distingu ishable when taking into account the increase 
in number of working days checked. Detailed de scription of detection rates in Member States 
is included in the accompanying document. These discrepancies in de tection rates reveal 
that the European Union is far from esta blishing a harmonised enforcement area 
because of diverging enforcemen t resources and practices in controlling compliance with 
road transport legislation, as well as diverging penalty systems. 
2.1 Offences detected at roadside  
In the period 2011-2012, 2.2 million roadside offe nces were detected at European level, 
which constituted 58% of all detected offences both at roadside and premises. This indicates a 
decline in quantitative terms by almost 50 th ousand, which means by 2% as compared to the 
previous reporting period. Per each 100 worki ng days checked 1.74 offences have been 
detected compared to 1.9 in the previous reporting period.  
On average 64% of offences we re detected on national vehicles11, which correlates with the 
69% rate of national vehicles checked in Euro pe. However, there are Member States where 
                                                            
10 Detailed information on changes in particular Member  States is included in th e accompanying document.  
11 In Denmark, the number of detected offences related to non-nationals amounted to 90%. However, this result 
is not representative due to a substantial amount of missing data on which this calculation was based. To this end 
the number was not counted in the European average.  
 
9 
 the number of detected offences related to non- nationals prevails, namely Luxembourg (75%), 
Belgium (72%), Lithuania (59%), Sweden (57 %), Bulgaria (56%), Slovenia (55%), Austria 
(55%), France (54%) and the United Kingdom (53%).  This trend can be explained by the fact 
that all the above Member States  performed more controls of non-national vehicles apart from 
Bulgaria, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In the case of these three Member States, the 
offences detected by non-resident s are disproportionately more frequent. In particular in the 
case of Bulgaria where 25% of non-national ve hicles checked equalled 56% of offences 
committed and Sweden who performed 34% contro ls on non-national vehicles which resulted 
in 57% of offences detected. The increase of offences committed by non-residents might be 
alarming in Sweden as the rate in comparison with the previous reporting period rose from 
31% to 57%. It is worth addi ng that this trend c ontinues in Member States like Belgium, 
Bulgaria, France, Luxembourg, Slovenia and the United Kingdom since the previous 
reporting period.  
2.2 Offences detected at premises  
During the current reporting period, Member States reported altogether over 1.6 million 
offences detected at premises of undertaki ngs, constituting 42% of  an overall number of 
offences. This marks a decrease of 26% as comp ared to the previous biennial period. These 
figures should be seen in correlation w ith the number of undertakings checked which 
augmented by 42%12. Taking into consideration these two aspects, the real improvement in 
compliance with social rules could be noted.  
In terms of frequency of offences reporte d per 100 working days checked, the European 
average marked a positive tendency and decreas ed from 8.65 to 5.29. When seen in parallel 
with the slight decrease in frequency of viola tions detected at roadsi de, it can be concluded 
that all the activities aiming at better compliance with social legislation in road transport start 
to yield results.  
III. Data analysis on the implementation of  the Road Transport Working Time Directive 
(Directive 2002/15/EC)  
1. Introduction  
This chapter deals with the implementation by Member States in 2011-2012 of Directive 
2002/15/EC, also referred to as the "Road Tran sport Working Time Directive". According to 
Article 13 of this Directive, Member States are obliged to submit a report on its 
implementation to the Commission every two y ears, indicating the views of employees and 
employers at national level. Descriptive parts on  the transposition of this Directive in Member 
States, stakeholders' views on implementatio n and monitoring, control arrangements in 
Member States and enforcement issues ar e included in the acc ompanying document.  
2. Directive 2002/15/EC 
                                                            
12 See footnote 12 
 
10 
 The Directive establishes rules governing, inter alia , adequate breaks during the working 
period, the maximum average working week and night work. Its provisions supplement the 
rules on driving times, breaks and rest peri ods established by Regul ation (EC) No 561/2006. 
As this Directive lays down certain provisions concerning hours of work that are specific to 
the road transport sector, it is regarded as a lex specialis  to the general Directive 2003/88/EC13  
on working time, which establishes basic requir ements for the organisation of working time 
for all workers. However, the Charter of funda mental Rights of the European Union contains 
provisions concerning working time and worki ng conditions under its Article 31, which have 
to be respected when implementing EU law. A number of basic protection provisions of the 
general working time Directive,  including rules on annual leave and free health assessment 
for night workers, are also applicable to mobile workers in road transport. 
3. Submission and quality of national reports 
A common reporting format was established by the Commission in order to facilitate the 
reporting efforts of Member States, to reduce administrative burden and to prevent excessive 
delays in the submission of Member States reports. However, the quality of submissions 
varies significantly. The Netherlands did not provide any info rmation and indicated that there 
were no changes as compared to the previous period. Several Member States'14 submissions 
were incomplete. The majority of national re ports included informati on on implementation of 
Directive 2002/15/EC as well as on assessment of  its effectiveness. Nevertheless, due to 
incomplete submissions, the results of this analysis cannot be considered as representative for 
the whole European Union.  
4. Implementation aspects in Member States 
The overview of legislative acts transposing Di rective 2002/15/EC at the national level is 
included in the accompanying document. During this reporting period, many Member States 
informed on amendments of their legislat ive framework in order to include self-
employed drivers  in its scope ; namely Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, 
Malta (on-going), Poland, Portugal,  Sweden, the United Kingdom.   
As regards collective agreements, divergent systems are observed in the European Union. 
They range from no collective agreements conc luded (for example Malta) to established 
collective agreements that can provide for dero gation to the working time limit (for example 
Italy). In Spain, a framework co llective agreement in road tr ansport was negotiated at the 
governmental level and 26 collective agreem ents were concluded at the autonomous 
community or province level. In Luxembourg,  collective agreements were concluded for 
drivers of buses and additional employees of private buses enterprises as well as for the 
transport and logistics sector.  
                                                            
13 Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 concerning certain 
aspects of the organisation of working time (OJ L 299, 18.11.2003, p.9) 
14 Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary, Latvia, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden   
 
11 
 Portugal mentioned positive aspects of transposition thanks to clarification of availability 
periods and organisation of mobile workers' wo rking time. Lithuania and Estonia assured that 
there were no difficulties encountered when im plementing Directive 2002/15/EC as Lithuania 
provided training and consultation for employe rs and their authorised representatives. 
Directive 2002/15/EC was perceived as a good set of arrangements that helped to deal with 
definition of working time and its limits. Howe ver, Greece pointed out that certain provisions 
of this Directive overlap with those of Re gulation (EC) No 561/2006, which is a source of 
problems for businesses and workers. Spain id entified issues when implementing rules on 
calculating periods of availabil ity of drivers. The same matter was referred to by the Czech 
Republic. There is a confusion regarding the application of the working time provision, in 
particular when drivers spend time waiting be tween two runs and these times are known in 
advance15.  
In general, to facilitate practical impl ementation of Directive 2002/15/EC, Ireland and 
Sweden developed and distributed guidance materi al for operators on how to comply with the 
provisions of this Directive.  
4.1 Offences against working time rules  
Only a few Member States16 provided statistics on offences detected, which is not sufficient 
for any global conclusions to be drawn. As in comparison with the prev ious reporting period 
the same number of Member States provided da ta on infringements. All Member States are 
invited to include this inform ation in the next reports.  
5. Stakeholders' views on implemen tation of Directive 2002/15/EC 
Sixteen Member States17 confirmed that stakeholders had been consulted, as required by 
Directive 2002/15/EC, which marks an improvement  as compared to the reporting period of 
2007-2008, when only nine Member States indicated the fulfilment of this obligation. 
In general, there was a consensus among employ ers and employees that Directive 2002/15/EC 
contributed to health and safety protection of drivers. In Ireland, the employers expressed an 
opinion that limitations on working time improved the attractiveness of th e driving profession. 
Some national social partners voiced their concerns as to the lack of consistency of 
enforcement and application of the rules in forc e and expressed the need for clarification of 
                                                            
15 Article 3 (a) of Directive 2002/15/EC defines the ‘working time’ as " the time from the beginning to the end of 
work, during which the mobile  worker is at his workstation, at the di sposal of the employer and  exercising his 
functions or activities, that is to sa y: the time devoted to all road tran sport activities and the times during which 
he cannot dispose freely of his time and is required to be at his workstation, ready to take up normal work, with 
certain tasks associated with being on duty, in particular during periods awaiting loading or unloading where their anticipated duration is not known in advance ". 
16 Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech  Republic, Greece, Poland, Spain 
17 Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estoni a, Greece, Spain Finland, France, Ireland, Lithuania, 
Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, United Kingdom  
 
12 
 some specific aspects, such as compensation for night work. More detailed views of the 
consulted parties are included in the accompanying document.  
IV. Conclusions  
This report analyses implementation and en forcement developments over a 2011-2012 period 
in all Member States, in the context of  compliance with the EU social rules. 
The scope of this document is set out by Di rective 2006/22/EC and Commission Decision 
2009/810/EC that define standard data on Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 and Directive 
2002/15/EC to be submitted; mainly number and type of controls carried out and number and 
types of offences detected. In this reporting period, the quality and timeliness of submissions 
improved, which enabled the Commission to dr aw more reliable conclusions on the 
application of social rule s at European level.  
The report shows that certain improvements in  the enforcement and implementation of the 
legislation on social rules have been observed. On average, the total number of working days 
checked in the EU increased by 8.7% fr om almost 146 million to around 158.6 million 
working days checked while the minimum thresh old of controls of 3% remained unchanged. 
It is worth noting that all checks were pe rformed by a significantly lower number of 
enforcement officers for all Member States. This rise confirms the general commitment 
among Member States to enhance the controls of  compliance with the so cial rules in road 
transport. However, like in the last two repo rts, most Member States failed to reach the 
threshold of having at least 50% of the total wo rking days checked at premises and the vast 
majority of checks took place at the roadside. The Commission will monitor developments in 
this field. Should there be no improvements observed in the next reporting period 2013-2014 
in respective Member States th e Commission will launch an official enquiry with those 
Member States failing to comply with the requirement for checks at premises. 
According to Article 2 of Di rective 2006/22/EC, the threshol d of minimum checks of number 
of days worked by drivers of ve hicles will be raised to 4% once 90% of all vehicles checked 
are equipped with a digital ta chograph. In this reporting peri od 56% vehicles checked at 
roadside were equipped with the digital tachog raph. Hence, there is no base for raising the 
minimum threshold of checks to 4% of days worked by drivers.  
It is important for the national authorities to guarantee that checks are being performed 
without discrimination on the basi s of nationality of drivers/Me mber State of registration of 
vehicles. Member States should thoroughly examine their data and instruct control authorities 
accordingly in order to avoid the unequal treatment of non-nationals.  
After a significant and constant  growth of offences reported  over the previous 6 years at 
European level, which is tied with increases of minimum working days to be checked, there is 
a reversed tendency for the current reporting pe riod which marked a decrease versus the last 
period in the number of offences detected. This change seen together with the increase of the 
number of working days checked could be in terpreted as an improved compliance with the 
provisions of social legislation thanks to well-established en forcement practices and greater 
 
13 
 awareness of social rules among drivers. To th is end, the efforts of Member States and the 
Commission, such as guidance notes , trainings for enforcers etc.  start to yield results.  
The analysis of detection rates at roadside and at premises indicates that checks at premises 
remain more efficient than ad-hoc roadside co ntrols. Discrepancies in detection rates between 
Member States reveal that the European Union is far from establishing a harmonised 
enforcement area because of diverging enforcement resources and practices in controlling 
compliance with road transport legislation. 
Almost all Members States provided info rmation on concerted checks which shows an 
improvement in comparison with the previous period not only in term s of reporting quality 
but as well in the amount of  cooperation initiatives under taken. Cooperation takes place 
mostly between neighbouring Member States a nd is complemented by actions within the 
framework of Euro Contrôle Route (ECR), which puts in place collaboration on a bigger 
scale. 
The national reports on implementation of Dir ective 2002/15/EC, due to their incompleteness 
do not allow for in-depth analysis of impacts of this legislative act on health and safety of 
drivers or on road safety. Many Member States included self-employed dr ivers in the scope of 
their legislative frameworks even though this is sometimes perceived as causing enforcement 
issues.  
The majority of Member States confirmed that stakeholders had been consulted. In general, 
social partners recognised that appropria te enforcement of Directive 2002/15/EC is a 
precondition to assure adequate working conditions and undistorted competition.  
To assess other important aspects of the implem entation of the road transport social rules, 
including application of the European Court of Justice jurisprudence, implementation of 
exceptions and penalties in the light of the Charter of Fundame ntal Rights of the European 
Union, the Commission will launch a comprehens ive evaluation of the functioning of the 
social legislation in road transport.