Following several questions among business owners who received a €509 fine because they had not identified the driver of a vehicle even though they had paid the earlier traffic fine, the FPS Justice announced that is scrapping this identification fine.
The Justice Department aims to make Belgian roads safer for every road user by asking companies to identify the driver who committed a traffic violation, with a view to tackling repeat offenders.
"To catch repeat offenders, the Justice Department needs to know who was behind the wheel for every traffic violation," the FPS Justice announced. "This applies equally to traffic offences involving commercial vehicles."
Therefore, all companies – whether it concerns sole traders, SMEs or large leasing companies – are obliged to identify the driver for every traffic offence involving a company vehicle.
Acting in good faith
In recent weeks, the many enquiries have led to a dramatic increase in the number of driver identifications: from 30% to 70% – a good thing for road safety. However, entrepreneurs pointed out that they thought they were acting in good faith and that the amicable settlement sometimes arrived in the letterbox more than a year after the offence without any warning.
"This was part of a pilot project where fines were sent for non-compliance with the identification obligation. In early November, the FPS Justice decided to suspend this pilot project to evaluate the approach."
Still, the FPS is calling for compulsory identification to be in order for all fines at all times, both for fines issued in 2021 and for all new fines. Until now, you first had to go through certain steps once to authorise someone to perform that task.
"That was not user-friendly, especially for small businesses, and has now been simplified: from now on, sole traders and small businesses can log in as a company via eID or Itsme and identify themselves immediately." Larger companies can continue to use the existing system of role management, which they already use for other purposes.
In future, a clearer warning will also always be included in the fine letter for companies where the focus will be on driver identification: you will have to identify yourself before you can pay.
