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All change please
Page 28
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Digital tachos approach and manufacturers are keen to emphasise how easy the change over will be. Chris Tindall reports.
While the haulage industry questions whether digital smartcard tachographs really will start rolling out from 5 August, the manufacturers involved have been busy working out how to nip any techno fear in the bud.
Each manufacturer is keen to imply that their particular digital tacho unit is easier to operate than falling off a log.With that in mind Siemens VDO, Stoneridge and Actia are all putting together training packages and presentation CDs to ease the user gently into the digital environment.
Necessary planning
Siemens in particular is making much of the benefits of its unit, which it intends to advertise heavily at this year's CV show. But it is stressing there are practical issues that operators need to take into account now.
"It's going to happen and you do need to plan for it," says Siemens VDO product manager Peter Needham. "It's different from anything that's happened in recent times."
Needham says Siemens is offering "training packages" to operators, which includes a CD and training manual that gives information on how to use its model. Needham admits there's nothing to stop one driver from passing on the pack to another, though he adds there could be an"availability issue" in a large company. There is also talk of a four-day City & Guilds course in the pipeline, which will train the trainers for haulage fleets. However, it would be sufficient for an owner-driver getting to grips with the technology to purchase a "fleet pack", according to Needham, which would provide all the necessary information.
As dictated by the regulations, Siemens' tacho model has 38 pictograms that drivers will need to get to grips with, as opposed to the current three or four mode settings on analogue tachos. Each image tells the user which mode it's in and what the tachograph is being used for. All information on the driver's driving hours and speed can be downloaded from the digital unit via a "download key" and eventually inputted into a PC programme. Digital data is automatically merged with data from a chart-based tachograph on the company's computer programme, to make the process simpler.
Another tacho manufacturer, Stoneridge, says it has been chosen by the FreightTransport Association to deliver fleet operator and driver training for smartcard tachographs in the UK. It will also be exhibiting at the CV show.
Amanda Robertson at Stoneridge says it has already managed to secure signed contracts with Scania, MAN and Daimler Chrysler to provide them with digital tachographs. The company has also organised a series of road shows and workshops for fleet operators. These are intended to provide information on legal responsibilities, data handling, planning for their introduction and demos of the equipment.