EU plans for tack, time limit signals
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by Amanda Bradbury
• An external warning signal, visible to other road users, if a driver has driven over any legal period of driving time could be introduced on to trucks as early as 1 January 1996.
This proposal is from the European Commission on a new generation of tachographs and is contained in a paper released this week, The paper gives further details of Commission plans to require the tachograph to have a bolt-on electronic device which also makes and interprets recordings of drivers' hours and is accessed with a driver-specific smart card.
The proposal will be considered by the European Council of Ministers next month: a first reading in the European Parliament will probably be in November and be adopted in the first half of next year.
New trucks coming on the market in 1996 "would be expected to have the new systems fitted," says the Commission. The deadline for mandatory fitting to vehicles registered between 1990 to 1998 is expected to be 1 January 2000.