Given that it is in the interests of the Member States to detect and prevent the risks associated with the transport of dangerous goods, the European Commission is encouraging increased investment in this area, in particular to improve the training of enforcement authorities and the exchange of expertise and best practice, in its report on the application of the Directive on the monitoring of the transport of dangerous goods by road (95/50/EC), published on Wednesday 19 March.
According to the report, the number of offences reported remained relatively stable between 2018 and 2020. Over these three years, confirmed offences involving the transport of dangerous goods were detected or suspected during one in five checks, i.e. 77,311 checks out of a total of 393,120 roadside checks carried out in the EU, Norway and Switzerland.
When offences were detected, they fell into the most serious risk category in an average of 37% of cases. As a result, 6,849 vehicles were immobilised in 2018, 7,419 in 2019 and 6,197 in 2020. The high number of infringements reported by Member States may also be the result of their policy of targeting checks, which aims to identify and punish transport operators committing the most serious infringements in order to optimise resources.
The Commission assumes that the conflicting information on the total number of infringements, the consistent absence of risk category infringements in some Member States and the varying rates of non-compliance across the EU may be due to the lack of a harmonised approach by the supervisory authorities. This is why it is inviting them to invest in this area.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/g0k (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)