New measures to improve working conditions in bus transport
Published: 17 January 2010
In July and August 2009, the National Labour Inspectorate (Národný inšpektorát práce, NIP [1]) carried out checks to examine the working conditions of road transport drivers. These conditions are stipulated under Act No. 462/2007 Coll. on the organisation of working time in the transport sector, as well as under Regulation (EC) No. 561/2006 [2] of the European Parliament and Council on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport. This legislation regulates areas including the maximum working time [3], breaks at work, minimum rest periods [4] and night work [5], as well as specifying the control competencies of state inspection bodies.[1] http://www.narodnyinspektoratprace.sk/[2] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32006R0561:EN:HTML[3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/working-time[4] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/rest-periods[5] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/night-work
In the summer of 2009, the National Labour Inspectorate (NIP) conducted road transport checks to assess adherence to national and EU legislation. Some 572 of the checks examined the working conditions of bus drivers, such as driving time limits, breaks and rest periods. The drivers were notified about the detected shortcomings and, in some cases, fines were issued. Based on the results, the NIP adopted measures to improve the working conditions of road transport drivers.
In July and August 2009, the National Labour Inspectorate (Národný inšpektorát práce, NIP) carried out checks to examine the working conditions of road transport drivers. These conditions are stipulated under Act No. 462/2007 Coll. on the organisation of working time in the transport sector, as well as under Regulation (EC) No. 561/2006 of the European Parliament and Council on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport. This legislation regulates areas including the maximum working time, breaks at work, minimum rest periods and night work, as well as specifying the control competencies of state inspection bodies.
Details of bus transport checks
The NIP conducted the checks during the busy summer holiday season in all regions of Slovakia with significant bus transport services. At least 40 checks were carried out in each region. The inspections were mainly targeted at the following areas:
the daily and weekly working time of drivers, breaks at work, and periods of daily and weekly relaxation;
the correct functioning of equipment registering the bus journey;
maintaining registration sheets and data on the driver’s personal card;
the health status of drivers – including the validity of the preventive medical check-up results and of the psychological examination.
In total, some 572 drivers were checked, of whom 63.5% were drivers from Slovakia, 36% were drivers from other EU Member States and 0.5% were drivers from countries outside of the EU. Some 63% of the checks concerned drivers of excursion buses, while 37% targeted long-distance bus lines.
Detected shortcomings
The table below provides information about the main shortcomings detected by the NIP inspections.
| Type of shortcoming | Number of detected cases |
|---|---|
| Exceeded maximum allowed daily driving time (Article 6 paragraph 1 of EC Regulation No. 561/2006) | 59 |
| Driving longer than 4.5 hours without a break or taking too short breaks (Article 7 of EC Regulation No. 561/2006) | 163 |
| Break of the prescribed minimum daily period for relaxation (Article 8, paragraph 2 of EC Regulation No. 561/2006) | 249 |
| Break of the minimum weekly period of relaxation (Article 8, paragraph 6 of EC Regulation No. 561/2006) | 52 |
| Drivers did not submit the sheets for registration of their journey for the previous 28 days (Article 15, paragraph 7 of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3821/85 on recording equipment in road transport) | 46 |
| Drivers did not submit registration concerning their working time (Article 15, paragraph 7 of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3821/85) | 29 |
| Incorrect functioning of the registration equipment or illegal manipulation with it (Article 15, paragraph 3 of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3821/85) | 71 |
Source: NIP, 2009
Based on the check results, the inspectors imposed 225 fines, amounting to a total €16,970. In addition, some of the drivers were asked to stop driving immediately and to leave the bus at the motorway rest area to take the prescribed time for relaxation.
Main outcomes of checks
The most frequently detected shortcoming was drivers’ breach of the prescribed daily relaxation time. This was mainly caused by increased requirements for passenger transport during the busy holiday season. Another reason was the unduly prepared line timetables, which did not take into account possible time losses due to unfavourable driving conditions, such as traffic jams and difficult driving conditions through big cities.
Another frequently detected shortcoming was the breach of safety breaks after 4.5 hours of driving. This mainly concerned long-distance bus lines due to inadequately prepared timetables, which did not take into account possible transport restrictions. Regarding excursion buses, such breaches were largely caused by a lack of parking places in some of the countries through which they drove. During the inspections, the drivers’ knowledge of legal regulations was also examined. In addition, the labour inspectors provided consultancy services and explained the current provisions of some of the regulations, mainly Regulation (EC) No. 561/2006.
Resulting measures
The main objective of the inspections was to increase the safety of passenger transport and road safety through the improvement of drivers’ working conditions. The observations from the checks showed that, in order to achieve this objective, a number of measures are required, namely:
to perform driver checks throughout the year;
to intensify checks of companies providing road transport, in particular their adherence to the existing legislation;
to address the issue of harmonising bus line timetables with existing legislation and actual road transport conditions.
Teodor Hatina, Institute for Labour and Family Research
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2010), New measures to improve working conditions in bus transport, article.
