Europe looks to phase out analogue tachos by 2020
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By Christopher Walton ANAlOGUE TACHOGRAPHS could be completely phased out by 2020 after the European Parliament tabled an amendment to tacho regulations.
However, with digital tachographs the standard for new vehicles since 2006, any change in the law is expected to have an effect on only a few vehicles.
Tachodisc MD Karen Crispe says: “It was always inevitable that analogue would be phased out at some point and, if enforced in 2020, it should hopefully only affect a small percentage of vehicles.
“The implications for having a common type of digital tachograph, which may require vehicles to be retroitted, could be more disruptive. However it is early days, and more information is required.” However, Chris Yarsley, the Freight Transport Association’s EU affairs manager, believes there is no appetite for retroitting. “The European Parliament has, for a irst reading, put this in as an item for debate and it is the only one to say it. The European Commission and the Transport Council do not agree with retroitting. “This amendment might not even survive the legislative process,” he cautions.
Crispe adds that further EC proposals to merge drivers’ cards and licences by 2018 have been thrown out of the proposals to amend the tachograph regulation (EEC No 3821/85).
“The reasons cited are on the basis that there has been no impact assessment made on the implications of merging the cards for each member state.
“Indications are that the EC will try and get this back on the agenda at a later date,” says Crispe.