One in Four Trucks and Buses Fail EU Inspections: May 2025

Here’s a detailed breakdown by EU Member State from the 5–11 May 2025 ROADPOL + ELA Truck & Bus inspection operation: (Dates confirmed for 2025 European Roadside HGV Inspections)

🚛 Europe-wide Results

⚠️ Infringement Totals

Across Europe, approximately 69,749 infringements were identified—indicating that 1 in 4 trucks or buses failed to meet standards during the inspection week

🇧🇪 Belgium

Authorities in Belgium, notably at the port of Zeebrugge, carried out extensive checks on 168 vehicles. An alarming 51% of these were found with illegal cabin rest practices—breaching social rules and rest-time regulations.

🇭🇷 Croatia, 🇨🇾 Cyprus, 🇩🇰 Denmark, 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇱🇹 Lithuania, 🇷🇴 Romania

Joint inspections were conducted across these six countries, involving 320 inspectors. Together, they checked 420 trucks and buses. The total of infringements were uncovered, leading to over €240,000 in fines. In Romania, one driver notably had truncated his weekly rest by nearly 17 hours.

🇸🇰 Slovakia

Multiple violations were documented, particularly repeated driving/rest-time breaches and tachograph manipulation cases.

🇬🇷 Greece

Inspections north of Athens highlighted excessive overtime via tachograph audits, along with uncovering “letterbox” company schemes—operators registered in one state but working primarily in another.

🧮 EU-Wide

Main violation types: driving and rest-time breaches, tachograph fraud, cabotage irregularities, missing documentation, undeclared work

🔍 Analysis & Trends

Social rule non-compliance—notably illegal rest practices and overtime—was the most common infringement.
Tachograph manipulation remains widespread, as seen in Slovakia, Italy, Romania, and others.
Labour exploitation tactics, like letterbox companies, were especially identified in Greece.
Strong enforcement tools, such as remote tachograph checks, are being deployed (e.g. Belgium) to enhance compliance.

These country-level results, alongside EU-wide enforcement efforts, provide valuable insight into the ongoing challenges in cross-border heavy commercial transportation.

Message from the European Professional Drivers Association (EPDA):

“These inspection results confirm what professional drivers have been reporting for years: inconsistent enforcement, growing pressure from operators, and regulatory loopholes that too often leave the driver responsible. The EPDA calls on EU institutions to prioritise fair enforcement, better support for professional drivers, and swift rollout of modern tools—like smart tachographs and cross-border data sharing—to level the playing field and uphold safety across Europe’s roads.”