Complaints against unfair sanctions
For some time it has been an industry vision for hauliers to be able to complain about the efficiency, fairness and management of roadside officials abroad, particularly when it comes to enforcement of the Driving and Rest Rules under Regulation EC 561. Now the IRU is co-hosting a complaints desk on the IRU website. The link is:
http://www.iru.org/en_complaints_desk
The entry point for the complaints desk application is the drop down “Services” menu on the IRU home page. It is accessible to any users without requiring an IRU log-in and password. This will enable the widest possible participation form the road transport community. Those making complaints may remain anonymous.
On accessing the home page of the complaints desk, users will be able to read a short introduction explaining the complaints desk’s purpose. Clicking on one of the national flag icons will take the user to the complaints submission form in the language of their choice. Currently the site can be used in 4 languages; English, French, German and Romanian. Polish, Hungarian and Lithuanian are to be added soon and it is a target of the IRU/Euro Contrôle Route (ECR)/TISPOL 2012 Work Programme to expand the number of languages available on the website.
The Complaints Submission Form: is built on the IRU I-form design with which the IRU members will be familiar. In essence the form covers the following topics:
Information concerning the vehicle’s country of registration, the date, country of the inspection and identify of the control service;
Nature of the alleged infringement and sanction(s);
Reasons for the complaint and perception of poor control standards;
The possibility for users (encouraged) to submit relevant control documentation as an attachment.
Once the form is completed by the user, individual submissions will be stored in an IRU database. The communication will then be submitted to ECR to be entered in its database for analysis.
The IRU and ECR will analyse the submissions to identify if further corrective actions can be taken. Depending on the amount of information submitted, the review of this information may form one topic of discussion for the annual IRU, ECR and TISPOL meeting that is scheduled to tale place each year un the work programme. The 2012 meeting is expected to be held this Autumn.
Note: This process is not designed as an official appeal mechanism for individual cases, but rather to point out unfair procedures, disproportionate fines and poor treatment at the hand of individual officials. Furthermore, the process will initially be focused on actions by overseas agencies because most countries, including the UK through its trade associations, have procedures in place to deal with this issue.
In time it is hoped that this process will be expanded to be used against other officials who are believed to be exceeding their powers since ECR and TISPOL include police among theirs members.