The Last European: Romanian Driver Navigates the Soul of the EU
spiegel.de
spiegel.de
These guys should really drive at least with two drivers on those long trips if they are going to do it nearly non-stop, 3 hours of sleep really isn't enough to maintain your driving abilities, that's just playing the lottery.
The corruption (both the Hungarian and the Romanian variety) described in the article is very real, I've seen this many times up close and it is a source of much frustration with me. If not for that element Romania would have a much better chance to keep its talent and to move ahead.
100 hours of solo driving in 4 days should be simply classed as 'reckless' and should result in your license being taken away before you kill a bunch of people. Especially when also transporting passengers.
uh... its more than 4 days, right?
> 100 hours at the wheel in a bit more than five days. Is this crazy, suicidal or just business as usual?
It's murderous.
I strongly think that there should be very strict regulations on how much they may drive. He may not have been in an accident but the cars behind his might due to his irresponsible behavior.
And if that doesn't work then too bad for you...
The first time this happened it scared the crap out of me, now I'm more prepared and I will keep a very large truck in front of me on the most risky parts of the passage, they rarely try to overtake that combination, it's just too long.
Defensive driving gets a totally different meaning on those roads.
And how will that be enforced ... how, exactly? Short of proactive electronic monitoring in every single vehicle on the road in Europe as a prerequisite for driving anywhere at all, that is.
The entire premise of this operation is that you throw caution to the wind and save money because it's an extra ~$200 and you're making around $3/hr, if you're lucky enough to be employed.
While I have no idea what that costs, you should be responsible for what you are doing on the road. And if commercial driver think it is a good idea to drive 100h in just 5 days, such reckless behavior has to be stopped. If you want to save money and sacrifice your on health, that's your decision but endangering others is a no-go.
I'd also be reckless (and forbidden) to drive without working breaks even if they have worked well enough for you so far. If you don't sleep enough, your reflexes will be pretty bad and that is just as bad as not having functioning breaks.
And how much would that cost him? Maybe 200€ per trip more. The cost would not only be split among the passengers but also among his legally smuggled goods. And I think he is making enough money if he gives each passenger tobacco that he sells for a lot of money and even has someone's paycheck for half a year with him.
Most freight companies have an existence and operations outside the grey market. They can be subjected to this sort of regulation. An independent guy with a van? Enforcing that will be a whole lot harder. He won't install it. Or he'll install it and disable it, or otherwise thwart its well-functioning. If you set up checkpoints to verify that the device is installed and functioning he'll detour around them, over rural highways.
And if the lawless independent guys with a van can undercut the lawful one, they'll get the business.
I saw this in another one of those countries, basically after the public transportation collapsed, individual drivers would use vans and basically suppliment existing routes. Before regulations those could be very unsafe, and superoptimized for maximum number of people (very few chairs -- more standing room, chairs squeezed togethers, and so on).
But yeah corruption is probably the biggest problem those countries face. It is entrenched top to bottom -- lowest traffic cop to highest government offices. And notice, how it is not that the driver necessarily has to be unsafe or break the rules, once the cop expects to be paid, he will go out of his way to make their lives extra miserable to teach them a lesson.
"He sees it as a sport. He would like his daughter in Romania to grow up well, so that she can go to college later and live in a nice house. If he obeyed the German rules that wouldn't be possible. So he does what he must. And Germany does what it must. And Europe too. "
This article is too dramatic and generalizing too much. Of course fewer and fewer Romanians are like this, things have changed there. And it's one of the most beautiful countries in Europe.
Romanians I know are programmers, start startups or work at Microsoft or Google, are quite hip, go to music festivals, take acid and travel around the world.
It's all a matter of perspective (and selection bias :).
It's all a matter of selection bias.
That's also a road on which you simply should not cycle.
Now that the M1 is open on a large part of those stretches it has gotten a lot better, there are still three dangerous segments left (along the river, up the black mountain and near Lugoj).
As for corruption, the low-level part of it (e.g. cops taking bribes) is eliminated here, fortunately.
When I went to holiday last time to Spain, I figured out very quickly that I am treated much better when told to be from Hungary instead of Romania. There is a big disinclination toward Romanians in western Europe, probably because the mismatch with gypsies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/opinion/romanias-anti-corr...
Romania anti-sleaze drive reaches elite:
The parent's statement is neither offensive, nor out of line with reality. It also says absolutely nothing about the math skills of the Romanian people, rather it speaks to the inherent nature of all people to seek greater opportunity for themselves.
OP was pointing out that Romanians are treated as brute work force, although there is a part of romanian imigrants that work in hospitals and IT and what not. It was not to say to Romanians are stupid or something, "like latinos".
Hopefully the next generation will be part of the established middle class so that they can reach higher than agriculture and construction work.
And the article calls him a hero?
Hilarious that the author thinks Budapest (this is the capital of Hungary) is in Romania :). Maybe he thought of Bucharest.
"A Hungarian police car stops the bus shortly before Budapest, and once again demands €200" and " Others were back in Romania only briefly because they needed to take care of paperwork in Bucharest."
Just for the opportunity to transport forbidden items and the convenience of being dropped exactly at their destination?