of a small group of exempted goods vehicle users, the
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tachograph, and the accompanying drivers' hours reg ulations, will play an increasingly important role in your road transport operation, and will have done so from the early 8os.
At one level, these regulations can be viewed as another cost to be met by the haulier. Not only will he have to pay for tachograph installation, but he will also find himself required to stump up, not just for charts, but for inspection every two years.
Return
Given that the haulier is operating in an industry in which a 3% return is reckoned to be not half bad, and given that his other costs, such as fuel, tyres and staff, are unlikely to fall, then making a case for sending tachograph discs out for external analysis, thereby creating yet another cost, could be viewed as a fairly futile exercise.
Unwelcome, maybe, but futile? Not really. If rigorous tachograph analysis is not already playing a part in your business, then you may be storing up problems. The days when you could get away with a cursory, ad hoc analysis of your drivers' charts have long gone, to be replaced with a far more sophisticated approach, in which external tachograph analysis has a considerable role to play.
"There is no legislative requirement for operators to submit their tachograph discs for external analysis," explains Robin Sharp, bead of tachograph services for the Freight Transport Association. But if you don't, you will expose yourself to greater wrath from the enforcement officers if you are shown to have breached the regulations."
Sharp argues that, as an exercise, external tachograph analysis has a value similar to a quality audit: "A lot of operators like to have the control of an external audit," Sharp points out. "Tachograph analysis is a timeconsuming exercise and external analysis may prove to be more cost-effective. In the context of best practice, it is indicative of a professional and law-abiding operation."
Like all tachograph analysis bureaux, the FTA can offer as much or as little information as the transport manager needs: "In addition to the standard hours, distance and breaks information, we can also provide a comprehensive percentage-based vehicle usage report," says Sharp. "This can be extended to an almost forensic analysis for accident reports. Depending on what happens with electronic tachographs, and the growth of daily information downloads, we may find ourselves in a position where we can advise on driver availability at the end of each shift."
Coral Pearce, a partner at Newent, Gloucestershire-based analysis bureau Aaron Associates, says: "The transport manager already has enough to worry about. lithe Vehide Inspectorate comes flying into your office, being able to show the inspectors a detailed print-out from a analysis company says a lot about the standards you maintain."
However, Pearce is quick to add that the main advantage of external analysis comes from the amount of management data which the exercise can produce: "The Department of Transport advises operators to check a minimum of one third of his charts. If you analyse all of them, though, information on vehicle use, missing mileage, and over-use of fuel can all be identified. For the transport manager, this type of data is central to his job."
Novadata, a Braintree-based analysis agency, agrees with this interpretation: "Using an outside agency certainly looks like good housekeeping," says Novadata's legal executive Derek Broomfield.
"However, tachograph analysis goes a lot further than just sorting out the right from the wrong. A lot of the drivers' hours regulations are complicated, and our indepth analysis can point to a company's training needs in this area.
"Bear in mind, too, that it isn't just the Vehicle Inspectorate or police which can seize tachograph charts. We've recently been called as expert witnesses to a Customs & Excise prosecution based on tachograph evidence, and, increasingly, the Inland Revenue is using charts in order to investigate wages fraud."
The advent of the electronic