Safety risk in traffic: Police: Manipulation of truck control systems is common practice

In international truck traffic, traffic police officers believe that disregard for working time regulations and manipulation of control and safety systems have reached alarming levels. “When we check at night, we are confronted with crime, some of which has to be viewed as very organized,” said Stefan Pfeiffer, head of the Feucht traffic police station. The investigators assume that in many cases it is not individual black sheep among the drivers who manipulate, but rather their employers. In many cases, complaints are made about the trucks of foreign shipping companies.

Systematic manipulation

“It starts with vehicle drivers who do not have a driving license or a work permit, some of whom travel with completely forged documents,” said the police director of the German Press Agency.

The digital control devices built into the trucks are manipulated with a technical effort that “certainly does not come from the drivers. They are trying to manipulate entire truck fleets.” Forwarding companies that adhere to the regulations struggle with higher costs: “Of course, this creates competitive disadvantages for law-abiding companies,” says Frank Huster, general manager of the Federal Association of Forwarding and Logistics (DSLV) in Berlin.

Technical expertise necessary

Digital control devices are required in the EU for commercial trucks over 3.5 tons and buses; drivers must have a driver card that is inserted into the control device. Among other things, driving time, distance and speed are saved. “If you interrupt the plug connection to the digital control device, you turn a truck into a so-called “Flying Dutchman,” said Pfeiffer. “Then all assistance systems, including the engine regulation, are deactivated in this towing vehicle.”

However, the police also come across technically much more complex methods of manipulation. “We also have the phenomenon that the so-called Kitas – the Kienzle tachograph sensor – is manipulated,” said Pfeiffer, who recently presented his findings at the Allianz’s annual Autotag.

The tachograph sensor records the electromagnetic pulses from the transmission and transmits them to the digital control device. “It’s screwed into the gearbox, so you have to have very good technical knowledge,” said Pfeiffer. These would be flexed by the perpetrators, a second cable would be placed in the driver’s cab, “and then you can switch the digital control device on and off by hand.”

But even a functioning control device can be manipulated, according to the police officer – for example if the driver uses several driver cards and in this way conceals the fact that only one person was behind the wheel. “The main problem at the moment is fake driver cards,” said Pfeiffer.

Exhaust gas purification switched off

Another illegal method of reducing costs concerns exhaust gas cleaning. According to Pfeiffer, so-called AdBlue emulators are common. “The emulator tricks the system into thinking that the outside temperature outside is around minus 100 degrees. Then the system automatically switches off the AdBlue supply.”

The additive AdBlue is used to reduce pollutant emissions from diesel engines. The emissions class, in turn, plays a role in the tax class into which a truck is classified. “The shipping company saves on AdBlue and drives in a tax class in which it shouldn’t actually drive,” said the police director. Apart from that, the AdBlue systems in large vehicles have to be serviced once a year, which costs around two and a half thousand euros. “So a shipping company can save a lot of money.”

High complaint rates across Europe

The European traffic police association Roadpol coordinates regular cross-border control operations. An example: In February last year, traffic police checked 248,498 trucks in 29 countries over the course of a week. The police discovered violations in almost 87,000 trucks – a rate of 35 percent.

A much higher hit rate is achieved during night-time checks

During the regular night inspections by the Feucht traffic police station, the complaint rates sometimes even reach 100 percent, according to police chief inspector Stefan Munker – every truck is a hit. The head of a heavy vehicle and dangerous goods team gives an extreme example: “In another case, a driver who was not yet 30 years old was on the road on behalf of his company from a third country during inspections for almost three months without a day’s rest.”