Company cars, fines, and associated risks

As Sam Tanson and François Bausch explained in response to a parliamentary question by LSAP MP Mars Di Bartolomeo, many companies do not report the perpetrators who commit traffic offences while driving company cars. This in turn means a number of associated fines are left unpaid, while prosecuting the offenders is virtually impossible.

On 1 December 2019, Luxembourg counted 429,008 vehicles registered to the territory, 90,052 of which are registered to businesses. Although the ministers did not provide figures on the distribution between genuine company vehicles and those rented by individuals, they still represent 21.2% of the overall total.

Like any road user, the driver of a company vehicle can commit traffic offences. For the government, the issue is due in particular to the offences committed "in matters of parking and in terms of exceeding the maximum authorised speed recorded by the automated control and sanction system" .

EXCESSIVE SPEED

© Police

In the case of a discrepancy giving rise to a withdrawal of points: if the taxed warning is not resolved and if the company owning the vehicle has not reported the driver, the police must carry out an investigation to identify the offender. It is the latter who risks losing a point or even the withdrawal of their license. The fine is issued to the legal representative of the company.

If the vehicle is registered abroad and the driver unknown, Tanson and Bausch explained that the investigation is usually unlikely to succeed. For neighbouring countries, the police are usually able to obtain the information necessary to prosecute the representative of the company for the payment of the fine.

In the case of offences without withdrawal of points: in the event of default of payment of the fine and non-identification of the author of the infringement, a paid warning is issued to the representative of the company and its amount is doubled. Since the automation of the control and sanctions system (fixed and mobile speed cameras) saw the light of day, 34,134 vehicles belonging to companies have been flashed: 25,041 were registered abroad and only 9,093 in Luxembourg. In just over one in two cases (17,213 to be precise), the company reported the driver. It was a vehicle registered abroad in 12,004 cases against 5,209 cases involving vehicles registered in Luxembourg.

PARKING FINES

© Police

For unpaid fines relating to vehicles registered in Luxembourg, the company owning the vehicle is prosecuted.  Businesses can pass the responsibility to the driver, who is criminally responsible for offences committed according to the highway code.

However, if the government wishes to prosecute the perpetrator of a parking offence whose vehicle is registered abroad, there is no legal basis for requesting the information, said the Ministers of Justice and Mobility - regardless of whether or not the owner of the vehicle is a company or an individual. This is the fault of an automated system which only applies to certain offences, including speeding.