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Truck manufacturers say that their plans to develop a digital
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tachograph that can be downloaded remotely will make drivers' hou administration easier than ever before. But how might the system work and what will really be the benefits? Robin Meaes repor
They may be new to vehicle operators, but in the grand scheme of things. digital tachographs are hardly cuttingedge technology. One particularly irksome feature of their introduction is that little, if any, provision has so far been made to integrate them with other systems such as vehicle telematics devices.
That is set to change with the recent announcement by a group of truck manufacturers, including Scania,Volvo, MAN ERE', DaimlerChrysler, Iveco,Daf and Renault, that they are developing a remotely accessible digital tachograph.
The idea behind the plan is that operators won't have to wait for vehicles or drivers to return to base in order to download data from the vehicle unit or individual drivers' cards. Instead they will be able to access the data remotely whenever they please, even automatically at regular intervals. It is hoped the new system can be introduced in the next two to three years.
Benefits to operators will include major time saving on administration,says PatrikTharna. product manager for fleet management systems at Scania a leading proponent of the new system. "The legal demand for the downloading and storage of data from digital tachographs and driver cards may affect vehicle uptime quite negatively,he suggests. -Downloading data from a vehicle unit typically takes about 30 minutes, for example." With the remotely accessible digitach, operators will be able to see when drivers are sailing close to the wind on hours and c something about it before any infringeme: takes place,saysTharna.This will help thei to stay legal all the time, rather than only becoming aware of infringements after the event.
Unanswered questions This is an obvious improvement to the current status of digital tachos.What's not so clear, however, is how the system will 13( implemented. Scan ia, for instance, has a vi of digital tachograph data being uploaded to a central server in its domain, which use can access. It is equally possible for data tc be sent direct to vehicle operators or othe third parties their current telematics provider, for example, or their chosen tact analysis bureau.
There is also the question of how the dal transfer will take place. No doubt truck manufacturers will be keen to sell users t h. idea of channelling the data through their own vehicle telematics systems. But they v also have to make some provision for the c to be passed through third-party telematic systems.There is also the question of whet digital tachograph data might be remotely downloadable without a fully-fledged telematics system present on the vehicle, perhaps via some kind of bolt-on function that will just handle the basic communications.
The interface between digital tachograph and any communication system is another thorny issue and this is the main focus of the vehicle manufacturers' recent announcement. Mike Leeming,director of asset management at MAN ERE says the key is an upgrade to the FMS standard the standard interface that allows other systems to access data on the truck CANbus.
Once that FMS standard is upgraded to allow digital tachograph data lobe accessed, both vehicle makers' own telematics systems and third-party alternatives that support the standard will be able to access the data, he says. The only problem is that the new FMS standard will only be incorporated into new vehicles "Retrofitting a new FMS standard would be commercially impractical," he says. -Technically,it could be done though there would be hardware, software and configuration issues but in practical terms it would just be too expensive."
Unfortunately, that would mean existing vehicles will never be able to take advantage of remotely downloadable tachographs.
Type approval
Ihe digital tachograph itself will also have to change, says Martin Wennerblom,product and market manager for tachograph products at Stoneridge Electronics, but anyone concerned that it might take as long to get those changes approved as it did to get the initial tachograph spec established need not worry "There will need to be a new type approval," he says -But there won't be any changes to the digital tachograph specification itself -Annexe lb of the spec provides for output to other channels. A key issue is how to implement the communications between back office an digital tachograph,saysWennerblom -a how to make sure those communication secure. Some kind of additional office-Ix hardware device will almost certainly be needed to handle communications betw the company card and the vehicle unit. There has been talk in some quarters ab4 company cards being stored as files on tlhack office computer, but that's not likel Wennerblom, as the company card cola; a security key needed to authenticate it t vehicle unit.
There are also issues about establishii a secure working connection between tl company card in the back office and the digital tacho itself, because it is a multi-s process that will involve a message goin the back office to a server on the intern( from interne to the vehicle, from vehicl the CANbus and from the CANbus tot digital tachothen all the way back aga expect the testing phase may be quite complicated," says Wennerblom."But i be made to work...
It is possible, he adds, that instead of using the "common" vehicle CANbus, t new system might use a second, dedicat CAN bus of its own particularly if cert vehicle manufacturers decide they can' allow the data to be transmitted throug regular CANbus, for example. "It depei on the individual vehicle architecture," Wennerblom says."Some are more rest than others about what can and cannot through the CANbus.s