Multilateral Exchange Budapest

Enforcers from 10 member states come together to exchange best practices and experiences.

Following 2010 and 2011 the National Transport Authority (NTA) was again the proud host of an Euro Controle Route exchange held from the 5th to 10th May 2013. The event in Hungary was primarily focused around the exchange of experience and knowledge on roadside technical inspections as well as detection of tachograph fraud.
1st day of the programme besides introducing the host organization’s activities  featured presentations related to the main subjects mentioned above, including a few detailed slides on equipments and tools used by NTA at the roadside followed in room virtual checks exercises for the groups. One of the most appreciated presentations was without doubt the comprehensive ‘curricula’ on fraud discovery, which has already been adopted by some as basic manual for inspectors.   
2nd day kicked off with a visit of the experts to the periodical technical inspection station of the Pest County Transport Inspectorate in Vac as to get an insight view of the technical inspection’s methodology as it is identical to the one used at the roadside.

In the second part of the day roadside control has been organized in the vicinity of Retsag on 3 sites with the kind support of Nograd county transport inspectorate. Groups spent approx. one hour at each site dealing with axle weight measurements and social rules checks, technical inspections – with the equipment dedicated for N1 and M1 vehicles -  and tachograph manipulation and other frauds respectively.
On the 3rd day practical exchange of experiences continued at check site along freeway M5, south of the capital. Using the mobile technical testing provided by the Bacs- Kiskun county transport inspectorate complex roadside checks were conducted comprising some load securing and ADR inspections. The experts shared their methods on most effective ways of fraud detection too as a result of which some cases were uncovered on the spot.

In relation to this both days offered an opportunity to  compare the national system used for analysis of driving times. We can conclude that the skills, knowledge in the field are nearly at a similar level, however measures/actions taken are still widely differing. As for preparedness to conduct proper technical roadside checks lack of competence/training has been indentified with some countries, while others having serious expertise are missing valuable tools which could help them perform better.                    
4th day the groups summarized their findings of the week highlighting different approaches in the European enforcement area reinforcing the need for future action on uniform trainings for enforcers. The groups were also presented with some tricky TRACE like exercises, which they solved with ease proving high level of expertise.

The week ended with a sightseeing tour and a nice social event, after all exchanges are also about building network of enforcers.

Return to overview