Police monitoring lorry drivers' compliance with rules on driving and resting times have found evidence that many are breaking the law.
During a one-week period in February, police found that 376 drivers out of a total of 2,400 stopped were either driving for too long or not taking enough breaks.
While the number of infringements was similar to that found during a similar initiative in 2020, the overall trend worsened, police said.
"The number of driving and rest period offences remained disproportionate to the number of vehicles inspected. There has still not been a change for the better," said Inspector Kari Onninen of the National Police Board of Finland.
The rules were relaxed for two months in 2020, but have since returned to their pre-pandemic status.
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Coronavirus causing absences
Many in the transport business say that the coronavirus pandemic has placed their industry under strain.
Transportation company CEO Teija Pöytälaakso told Yle that while the pandemic had limited activity in many sectors, it had stimulated extra demand in online shopping and food delivery.
At the same time, the threshold for drivers to be off sick has been lowered.
"Before, you could be at work even with a runny nose, cough and sore throat, but now a driver would have to get tested for coronavirus," Pöytälaakso said.
Calls to make an exception permanent
Iiro Lehtonen, CEO of industry body Finnish Transport and Logistics (SKAL) told Yle that companies following the rules and taking extra precautions around coronavirus were being penalised when they did not have enough drivers to carry out work.
"When companies take precautions and follow the rules, there's a real concern that they won't have enough drivers. The rules as they are, are too strict," he said.
Requirements on rest periods for lorry drivers were eased from March to May last year, lowering the minimum rest period required by law.
"We would hope that such an exception could be made permanent, meaning that the regulations would be relaxed," Lehtonen said.
The rules governing driving and rest times are set by the EU, meaning that a permanent change would be outside of the Finnish government's control.