Intervenția UNTRR nr. 1475/15.05.2018 adresată Ambasadoarei Franței în România, E.S. Michæle Ramis
Embassy of France in Romania
H.E. Michèle Ramis - Ambassador
Ref.: urgent request to stop French abusive controls of the regular weekly rest of Romanian professional drivers
Your Excellency, Madame Ambassador,
The National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania (UNTRR) is the employers' professional organization which promotes nationally and internationally the interests of Romanian road transport industry. Since our establishment in 1990, we have registered as members more than 14 000 Romanian companies performing national and international road transport of goods and passengers.
On behalf of Romanian road transport industry, UNTRR asks for Your Excellency support for UNTRR urgent request to stop the abusive control practices of French authorities against Romanian road hauliers and professional drivers regarding the enforcement of the ban to spend the regular weekly rest in the cabin of the vehicles. French controls exceed the French legal framework and the decision of the European Court of Justice regarding this ban.
An increasing number of Romanian road hauliers complain that their drivers were controlled in France being asked to prove that they did not spend the previous regular weekly rest in the cabin although at that time, the drivers were in other countries than France. Moreover, French control officers asked the Romanian drivers for documents to prove that they spent the previous weekly rest at the hotel, not accepting drivers' declarations (even photos shown as proof) saying that they spent the regular weekly rest at relatives or at other places outside of the cabin. Consequently, many Romanian road hauliers received huge fines between 1000 EUR and 2 250 EUR in France for not having documents to prove that their drivers did not spend regular weekly rest outside the cabin when their drivers were in other countries than France.
By UNTRR letters annexed hereby, we ask The President of the French Republic, H.E. Mr. Emmanuel Macron and the French Minister of Transport, Mrs. Élisabeth Borne to stop these abuses and wait for the adoption of the revised Regulation 561/2006 establishing common EU rules for driving and rest times of the professional drivers. We ask France to respect the common EU rules and the main values of the European Union to whom Romania has joined.
We kindly ask the Embassy of France in Romania to convey these letters to French President and to the French Minister of Transport.
Expressing our trust in your support and urgent intervention, we are looking forward to receiving your kind reply and we assure Your Excellency of our highest consideration.
Yours faithfully,
Secretary General
Radu Dinescu
