It was a wonderful party last weekend for a few thousand truckers at the Truckstar Festival in Assen. But a few days later, Post of the Central Judicial Collection Agency follows. A ticket for honking during the exodus. The damage? 319 euros.
Every year the Truckstar Festival is extended for a few tens of kilometers when the truckers leave the TT circuit and drive home. On the viaducts over the A28 and on the roadside along the highway, hundreds of enthusiasts are waving truck drivers during the exodus. Enthusiasts of the shiny polished trucks that will be completely happy when the testing is done.
But unnecessary horns on public roads are prohibited, the police said. Agents who were controlling along the A28 therefore hurled various truckers. And those fines now come in at transport companies.
“If you drive from Truckstar to the south, there is a large gas station at Beilen where it is packed with spectators. Then as a trucker you can’t look at the central reservation and ignore those people?”, Albert Feenstra from Feenstra Logistics is desperate. His company received a fine today.
“A horn and blinking with the lights, that is part of it. But apparently the license plate of one of my trucks is listed by a warden,” Feenstra continues. He calls it a bit pathetic. “We are not in the middle of the city to pull that air horn. Everyone at that gas station expects that of you. I don’t understand the police approach.”
“It is true, during the exodus of Truckstar we handed out a number of fines for unnecessary horn on public roads,” a police spokesperson confirms. “These are a number of excessive cases found by agents.”
According to the spokesperson, not all honking truckers are fined, only drivers who pressed their horn for a long time. He cannot indicate exactly how much are fined. “Unnecessary honking on public roads is not allowed anyway.”
That it was a festive exodus with many spectators along the road does not matter to the police either. “It is not covered by the festival.”
Feenstra Logistics will in any case challenge the ticket, says the director. “Several people have already looked at it and say that things are not quite right. I am confident that the ticket will be canceled.”