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What are the main reasons drivers in Spain get fined?

Despite lockdowns and mobility restrictions, 10,000 driving fines were handed out in Spain on a daily basis during 2020. These are the main reasons why drivers were penalised and the regions were most fines were handed out.

Published: 29 March 2021 12:46 CEST
What are the main reasons drivers in Spain get fined?
Photo: Oscar del Pozo/AFP

Believe it or not, Spain’s annual traffic fines total of 3.87 million in 2020 still represented a drop of 17 percent in fines compared to 2019’s figures (4.6 million fines).

The average drop in road traffic of 25 percent over the course of the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic has meant fewer fines were handed out, but many of the usual driving offences persisted.

A new study by the European Automotive Association (AEA) reveals just this.

Speeding continued to be the main reason for Spain’s Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) to hand out fines in 2020, with 1.77 million speeding fines handed out after drivers were caught by fixed speed cameras.

In second place with more than 515,000 recorded traffic penalties were another type of speed camera – mobile ones (radar móvil) which Guardia Civil officers usually carry with them in their vehicles whilst monitoring passing traffic. Offenders caught with these speed measuring devices actually increased by 65,000 in 2020 compared to 2019.

The third most common reason for fines being handed out by the DGT was using a vehicle that has not passed its roadworthiness test, or for it to be rejected, representing almost 435,000 fines in 2020.

Fines for using a mobile phone while driving stacked up to 96,181 last year, which also happens to be one of the driving offences which the DGT has started clamping down on with tougher penalties.

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Driving without a licence (94,457 fines) and not wearing a seatbelt (94,417) completed the list of main driving offences which resulted in fines in Spain in 2020.

The AEA highlighted that fines for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs dropped by 55 and 49 percent respectively in 2020.

Speeding incidents in which Guardia Civil officers had to apprehend the drivers due to the excessive speed at which they were driving also fell by 44 percent, but negligent behaviour at the wheel increased slightly (2.6 percent), as did the rate at which motorcyclists were caught not using a helmet (17 percent).

“We are concerned that driving offenses relating to pedestrians (+15.5 percent) and cyclists (+ 66.5 percent) have increased very significantly, which is why we believe it is very necessary and urgent to launch campaigns aimed at the protection of these vulnerable road users,” AEA also stressed.

One point that the association finds “suspicious” is the 27 percent increase in the number of fines that have doubled or tripled as a result of drivers not notifying the DGT who was at the wheel when the offence was committed.

Rather than offer a 50 percent discount for early payment, the fine amounts are increasing in many cases due to the postal service holdups and problems that have meant drivers in Spain aren’t getting notified of the fine they have to pay in the post.

There’s also the added bureaucratic issue of not being able to get an appointment (cita previa) at the DGT due to past and ongoing Covid restrictions.

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In which regions of Spain were the most fines handed out?

The rate of traffic fines issued fell in all of Spain’s 17 regions and two autonomous cities except for in Aragón and Castilla y León, in which multas (fines in Spanish) actually increased by 25.6 percent and 23.5 percent respectively in 2020.

The following graph from AEA’s study shows where speeding fines have increased and fallen in Spain in 2020.

Despite this, Andalusia is where the most fines were handed out last year (858,631 fines), with recorded rises in the number of people using their mobile phone while driving, not identifying the driver as well as inconsistencies relating to driving licences.

Madrid is where the highest number of driving offences were detected based on regional road network size (143 complaints per kilomere), and the interior region of La Rioja for its rate of fines per vehicle (0.21 fines per vehicle).

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Ceuta and Melilla were where the fewest road penalties were recorded, both in absolute numbers (8,372 fines) and in terms of vehicle numbers (0.06 fines per vehicle).

Castilla y León and Extremadura were the regions with the fewest fines per kilometre of road (11 fines/km).

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EXPLAINED: How Spain’s new Social Security app works

Whether you're self-employed, an artist, a student or a domestic worker, Spain's new social security app aims to simplify and streamline bureaucratic processes you might need to do when it comes to managing your working life and pension.

Published: 17 September 2024 11:04 CEST
EXPLAINED: How Spain's new Social Security app works

Spain’s Social Security Ministry has launched a new free mobile app aimed at simplifying and synchronising tax, pension and working life procedures, allowing you to better access records and update information.

The app is specifically aimed at easing the bureaucratic burden on the self-employed, domestic workers, artists and young people studying or doing work experience.

Spain’s Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, presented the app this week, stating that it represents “a great step forward for citizens to have a closer and more fluid relationship with Social Security.

Through this application, personal data can be updated and verified; detailed information on contribution bases can be accessed and your Work Life report can be easily downloaded, among many other services.”

In Spain, your ‘Working Life report’ is known as el informe de vida laboral. According to the Social Security website, it is “a document that contains information on all the periods contributed by the worker to the Spanish Social Security system.” In other words, all the information on your entire employment history in Spain.

READ ALSO: How to check how long you have left to get a pension in Spain

The app essentially moves over the various processes usually done on the Social Security portal or in Spain’s social security offices so users can receive a more personalised service including tailored alerts and the ability to download documents to their mobile phones in offline mode.

It also allows users to easily check the details of their working life including for who and for how long they’ve worked somewhere, the type of contract they have, the working day or the relevant collective bargaining agreement, as well as information on contribution bases and how much they are owed in the event of sick leave and for calculating your pension.

How do I access and use the app?

First you’ll need to download the app from the Google Play or Apple App store. Once you’ve downloaded it to your phone, there are three ways to log-in in and register:

  • Permanent Cl@ve
  • Digital certificate (Android only)
  • SMS

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Once registered and logged in, push notifications can be turned on as well as a biometric access — either fingerprint or facial recognition.

Once this has been done, you can access your personal information, whether it be working or pension matters, and all the normal procedures you’d previously do via the portal can be carried out and all this information can be downloaded in files.

What can you do with the app?

As mentioned earlier, the new app basically aims to streamline the processes you’d normally do via the Social Security Ministry portal or in person.

This includes checking your social security number or requesting one, consulting your tax contribution bases and employment history, updating your personal details, or managing tasks for the self-employed, domestic workers artists or young people doing work experience, such as registering or deregistering as economically active and downloading supporting documents.

READ ALSO: How to de-register as self-employed in Spain

Focus on young people, freelancers, artists and domestic employment

The application offers four different profiles to use the app: self-employed, domestic employment (for both employees and employers), artists and trainees.

The autónomo profile allows you to access all the information and procedures available if you are registered or are about to start self-employment, including registration and de-registration, modifying your contribution base, consulting tax receipts, and estimating your contributions according to your income, among other things.

In the domestic employment section, whether you yourself work domestically or are going to hire someone to work at home, you can consult all the necessary information such as calculating the contributions to be paid, registering and de-registering, updating the salary information and the working hours of the employee, or consulting payslips issued.

READ ALSO: The rules for hiring a domestic worker in Spain

For artists, you can manage your inactivity, request a refund of income from contribution bases or deregister from the working artists’ register.

For students doing internships or work experience (alumnos en prácticas in Spanish) the app is useful for both those about to start their internships and for those who’ve already started them, with access to their personal profile, a guide to resolve doubts, information to find out about the benefits of pensions contributions and they can carry out procedures such as requesting the social security number, downloading the Work Life Report and consulting contribution bases.

READ ALSO: How self-employed workers in Spain can get a better pension

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