A Dutch Court has decided that taking a long weekend rest in the cabin by a driver is not in line with the law. The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice wrote his conclusions in the same direction a couple of weeks ago. In most cases, the European Court of Justice follows the Advocate General’s position.
What can be the consequences?
If the weekend rest in the cabin is not allowed, this will result in higher costs for the shippers, as the international transport will increase in price. A ban of resting in the cabin will force the driver to stay in a hotel. This will bring risk to the goods if the trucks are left on a parking without the driver’s supervision.
Moreover, the present infrastructure of parking areas does not allow a smooth implementation of the rule. First, there is a lack of safe parking areas in Europe. So, drivers have to leave their trailers at the parking which is not supervised. Second, many of the parking areas lack budget hotels.
The European Commission will include this topic into its Road Initiative that should be issued around the summer break. If the Road Initiative goes in the same direction as the European Court of Justice suggests, more emphasis should be put on the development of possibly free safe parking areas.