Police carry out checks at Zeebrugge lorry park
The Highways Police and the Federal Judicial Police have been carrying out checks at lorry park at the West Flemish port of Zeebrugge today (Monday). All the vehicles that are parked up there are being checked to ensure that their drivers have abided by the rules on statutory rest periods. Other checks include verifying that the drivers’ documentation is in order and that they have not been employed in breach of labour legislation.
In addition to the Federal Judicial Police and the Highways Police, officers from several local police services, customs officers and officials from the European Labor Authority took part in Monday’s operation.
They check tachograph and vehicle documents a well as verifying that the drivers have been employed in accordance with the relevant social legislation. The police also checked for signs of social security fraud and human trafficking as well as checking the drivers living conditions. All 239 trucks that are parked at the lorry park are being checked.
Kurt Garrez of the Highways Police says that in addition to numerous breaches of rest period rules his officers also found one Moldovan driver to be in possesion of a fake driving licence.
With the long weekend many of the trucks have been parked at the lorry park since Friday. Under European law the maximum amount of time that a truck (with its driver) can remain at a lorry park is 45 hours. On Monday a large number of those parked up in Zeebrugge were found to have been there for longer than this.