In accordance with Directive 2000/30/EC, the Commission presents the third report on the application of Directive 2000/30/EC in Member States covering the period 2009-2010. The data collected by the Member States relating to this period had to be communicated to the Commission by 31 March 2011 at the latest.
The Commission notes that, whilst there has been an improvement of the number of Member States communicating statistical data as well as of the details included in those data since the previous reporting period, the communication of data was not done in a timely manner and the Commission had to launch pre-infringement procedures against some Member States.
In order to facilitate communication of information, the Commission has developed a standardised form for reporting. Not all Member States have, however, made use of it, rendering it difficult for the Commission to draw reliable conclusions on issues such as place of registration of inspected vehicles, the nature of the prohibitions issued, as well as for reporting the deficiency rates of commercial vehicles.
The total number of checked vehicles amounts to 8,869,882 vehicles for the period of 2009-2010. In this period the number of commercial vehicles in the EU adds up to 72,264,8575 vehicles. The ratio of checked vehicles reported for 2009-2010 to the overall fleet is 11.9% which corresponds to 5.9% of roadside commercial vehicle checks per year.
Prohibited vehicles: the proportion of vehicles prohibited in relation to all vehicles checked varies considerably from one Member State to another, from a high figure of 58.5% in the United Kingdom to only 0.3% in Bulgaria. The figures seem to indicate that targeted technical roadside inspections on poorly maintained vehicles enhance operational effectiveness and decrease administrative burden. Member States adopting this approach seem to have a higher capture rate of faulty vehicles with fewer checks than other Member States with a higher number of inspections.
Types of deficiencies: the most frequent deficiencies detected during inspections concern the functionality of braking systems, the roadworthy condition of tyres and lighting systems (showing deficiency rates of 19.8%, 15.9% and 42.5% respectively). These figures highlight the importance of roadside inspections in relation to road safety. Comparing data with the previous reporting period these are the same problematic areas as reported before.