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When Dutch drivers speed while on holiday in France, the fine is increasingly being received back home in the Netherlands. This is due to the exchange of license plate data at the European level. This is facilitated through the European information system EUCARIS. Each year, the CJIB publishes the number of traffic fines sent to and paid by each European country. But do Dutch citizens actually pay the traffic fines they receive from other countries? This has been investigated by Dialogic on behalf of the WODC.
Surveys conducted in a large number of European countries revealed that, on average, 83% of traffic fines sent to Dutch license plate holders were paid between 2017-2021. For fines from Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and Germany, the collection rate is even higher, ranging from 85-95%. This shows that Dutch license plate holders are more willing to pay their fines compared to holders from other countries. We believe that the effectiveness of the CJIB in collecting fines plays a role in this: Dutch citizens are "trained" to simply pay their fines.
At the same time, there is still room for improvement. Within the European exchange procedures, there is also the option to transfer fines to the country of the license plate holder – in this case, the Netherlands – if the foreign country fails to collect the fine. This way, the CJIB can collect a traffic fine from, for example, Germany if Germany is unable to do so itself. The fine revenues go to the country collecting the fine – in this case, the Netherlands gets to keep the money. In practice, it is mostly the Netherlands and Germany that utilise this option. Other countries are less likely to transfer unpaid fines to the Netherlands.
The ultimate goal is to improve road safety, with drivers likely to exhibit less dangerous behaviour if the risk of receiving a fine is higher. Therefore, we recommend enhancing cooperation in exchanging traffic fines through further automation of processes, making it harder to evade payment. In a Parliamentary Brief, Minister Weerwind has indicated his intention to address this at the European level.
Read the full report here.
