Employer Makes Driver Work and Sleep in Truck for Months

On Tuesday, the Antwerp police checked a truck driver who had been forced to sleep in his truck for months. His employer did not take the man’s working conditions very seriously and created a situation that resembled exploitation. The employer was forced to let the driver return to his home country for a well-deserved rest period.

“It was the Antwerp Police’s goods and passenger transport supervision service that took up position in the port on Tuesday,” said Wouter Bruyns of the Antwerp police. “They checked for the transport of dangerous goods by road (ADR). Ten trucks were checked, and seven immediate collections were drawn up. One truck was loaded with dangerous goods, but that was not registered on the consignment note. No hazard labels were affixed to the load.”

A foreign transport company apparently did not take the working conditions of their truck driver very seriously. He had been on the road with the same truck since April 2024 and was forced to spend every day and every weekend in the cabin of his truck. “Furthermore, at the request of his employer, he incorrectly recorded certain data about his location in the tachograph. In this way, he created the illusion that he returned to his home country every three weeks to take the necessary mandatory rest. The tachograph was no longer calibrated.”

The truck driver’s months-long journey finally ended in Antwerp. The transport company in question was obliged to allow the driver to return to his home country for a more than necessary rest period. Another foreign driver, on the other hand, flouted the rules on weekly and daily rest periods. He regularly only had a daily rest of three hours.

This article is a direct translation taken from Het Laatste Nieuws, a Belgian news site. You can read the original article here: https://www.hln.be/antwerpen/buitenlandse-werkgever-laat-chauffeur-maandenlang-doorwerken-en-in-vrachtwagen-slapen~a6bd6afa/.