Implemented between Monday 11 October and Sunday 17 October 2021 by the Police, the intense control campaign focusing on heavy traffic revealed 231 violations related to driving and resting periods as well as 67 cases where the tachograph rules had not been observed.
In 21 cases the driving had to be completely stopped because the vehicle was out of order, resulting in 140 sanctions for these violations.
The violations related to load securing (75) and overloads (45) show a growing trend, in particular.
– The differences between various intense control campaigns are normally insignificant. This time, however, the results of the controls were exceptional, especially as concerns load securing, overloads and shortcomings in the vehicle condition, Chief Superintendent Kari Onninen of the National Police Board reports.
During the control campaign, 1 841 heavy vehicles were inspected. Among them, 302 were vehicles with foreign number plates. Eight buses were also inspected.
The sanctions issued to drivers were 491 in total, and also 326 cautions were given.
The total workload allocated to the controls was over 3 000 hours.
Value of grey economy in traffic is about 500 million euro
In addition to maintaining traffic safety, the heavy traffic controls aim at fighting the grey economy and environmental harm caused by emissions. The term ‘grey economy’ refers to operations where statutory obligations are neglected to obtain financial gain. This providers the negligent actor with an unjust competitive edge.
According to Chief Superintendent Kari Onninen, the magnitude of the grey economy in traffic is estimated to be about 500 million euro in Finland.
During this campaign, the Police did not give any advance information on the controls, nor were results of the controls given during the control period. Neither were the locations of the controls published, for example, in the social media, and all this may have had an impact on the control outcomes.
All Police departments as well as the Boarder Guard participated in the nationwide intensive controls. The control period was also part of the European-wide control theme of the European Roads Policing Network (ROADPOL).
