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.
There might already exist laws against this in at least one country he's traversing, but I'm sure that's just part of the risk for him and doesn't affect anything else unless he's caught which is unlikely.
I'm pretty sure they have rules for truck drivers in Germany (at least those 18 wheelers). I recall a documentary about that topic on a German TV channel. However, I think these rules don't apply to him because he is not an official driver (his business does not sound very official at least).
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.
That's exactly how it happens. Overtaking in blind corners with fairly big vans (these things exceed 3 tons fully loaded and they're 6.6 meters long) and then ramming their vehicle back into the lane they're overtaking if they run out of room counting on the rest of the drivers to absorb their mistake.
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.
> I strongly think that there should be very strict regulations on how much they may drive.
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.
Depending on countries driving above a certain number of passengers means you have to have a special license. That is why he is probably carrying only so many people. If he could get by he would probably stuff some people in the trunk too.
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).
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.