Sunday's ban on driving trucks will be extended, there will be exceptions

Truck driving on Sunday was an important item on the agenda. There is a consensus that the trucks will not be allowed on the roads until 10 p.m. on Sunday. However, trucks will be able to finish their journey within the Czech Republic or until the end of transport. This will put the Czech Republic in line with the neighbouring countries in the field of driving trucks on Sunday. Trucks passing through our territory is related to building rest areas. The plan is to open approximately 241 parking spaces for trucks this year, 119 parking spaces will be added in 2020, 233 parking spaces will be added in 2021 and 308 new parking spaces will be built in 2022. Currently, the motorway network lacks approximately 1,400 parking spaces for trucks.

“We are the only country that allows driving trucks on Sundays until 1 p.m. These ideas and suggestions will be the subject of negotiations between the government and the Chamber of Deputies, but we have agreed that this needs to be adjusted. It would not be possible to drive trucks since midnight on Sunday any more, they would be allowed to go again only after 10 p.m.,” said Andrej Babiš.

The next point was a ban on trucks' overtaking. The proposed option would not ban overtaking in general, but only on selected sections. Now the police and the Road and Motorway Directorate are waiting for possible solutions. They should be ready by the end of this week and then the selected sections will be fitted with traffic signs. The police have already tried to check the ban on overtaking in the winter months, and now these checks are planned to be introduced all year round.

Increased supervision by the police, especially in risk areas, was another topic of the meeting. Nowadays, there is one patrol for non-stop service and one daytime regime patrol at each highway police department. The goal is to add at least one daytime patrol in order to increase responsiveness of the police. New departments should also be created along with the development of the motorway network. Thanks to the development material of the Police of the Czech Republic, the number of traffic police officers is granted to be increased by several hundred.

The issue of control posts was also addressed. At the moment, approximately 44 control post have been selected on the border. There was also a consensus during the negotiations on the need to set up a large control post on the D1. This would allow the police and the Customs to carry out sufficient checks.

“We agreed to identify the most important sections. This post should also be on the most critical section near Humpolec,” added the Prime Minister.

As far as penalizing of offences is concerned, a large number of foreign drivers who commit a traffic offence currently travel on Czech roads. The fine is now enforced by the Customs Administration. The aim is to interconnect the databases of the Police of the Czech Republic and the Customs Administration, which will allow police officers to find out if the driver has any unpaid fines. If the driver fails to pay the fine, his license plate should be removed from his vehicle. Therefore, he will not be able to continue driving until he has paid the fine.