If a traffic violation occurs with a company car, a company has been required to identify the driver since 1996. Justice must be able to identify the driver to follow up on violations and tackle repeat offenders.
Despite this obligation, according to the Ministry of Justice, two out of three traffic offenses are not identified in the name of a company. There were more than 685,000 breaches last year. Until recently, almost no additional fines followed. “While it was possible to monitor such violations, it lacked the ability to implement them effectively and consistently,” said Sharon Beavis, spokesperson for FPS Justice.
This is gradually changing. “Digitization means negligent businesses can be spotted faster than before,” says Beavis. Since January, 10,000 penalties have been imposed for breach of the identification obligation. “This remains proportionately little, but is systematically expanded”.
The Public Prosecutor sends a sanction only to companies that have repeatedly failed to comply with the identification obligation. They are usually fined once for an infraction, even if they failed to identify the driver in several files. From next year, violations will be systematically prosecuted.
