Inspection of heavy vehicles was organised in southern Austria, in Carinthia, in 25-26 September 2024. The European Labour Authority (ELA) enabled 19 German, Italian, Croatian, Polish and Slovenian officials to participate in the inspection side by side with their Austrian colleagues. 

The focus of this inspection was to ensure road safety and respect of social rights of drivers. It was organised at an international transport hub in the border area between Austria, Italy and Slovenia. To this end, driving and resting times, manipulation of tachographs, posting situations as well as roadworthiness of vehicles were controlled. Austria invited officials specialised in tachograph manipulation from the other Member States to this inspection in order to jointly detect manipulation and other violations. Tachographs provide crucial data on driving and resting times. They also make it possible to check that correct wages are paid to posted and other drivers. Preventing data manipulation is thus instrumental to drivers´ social rights as well as to the safety of all road users.  

ELA information leaflets were distributed during the inspection to drivers informing them about posting as well as driving and resting times regulations. 

The joint inspection on road transport in numbers:  

• 1,251 visual and weight checks 
• 476 vehicles checked more thoroughly   
• 1,451 administrative and judicial offenses filed mainly related to traffic offenses, and some to the social aspects of the mobility package e.g. driving and resting time; tachograph manipulation; posting situations and wages 
• almost 90 thousand Euros total provisional fines
• 90 Austrian enforcement officers involved
• 9 observers from five other Member States (Croatia, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia) and 3 ELA staff.