Two-year deadline for hi-tech tachos
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by Derrell Hayes • The European Commission is to introduce legislation within two years requiring hauliers to replace five million tachographs with hi-tech on-board computers.
The EC Tachograph Committee is finalising details of the proposals before they are formally laid down in January 1997. Legislation is scheduled to be in place by the start of 1999.
The EU has wanted to update the system for some years, but this is the first time it has laid down a timetable for the introduction of "second-generation" tachos.
Announcing the move at Transfrigoroute International's annual conference in Nice, Luc Werring, head of EC transport technology, said a change was needed because it is too easy to tamper with tachos.
The proposals are expected to include plans for a blackbox-style digital recording system linked to a smart card that will store data on the driver and vehicle for up to a year. Swindells: Technology is there but will it be reliable enough? Details will be finalised at an EC Tachograph Committee meeting on 2 October. Recommendations will then go to the EC working group Tacho Smart 3, comprising manufacturers who are developing the second-generation tachos.
Werring says: "We have the technology, it's now up to political will. It will make a lot of excesses impossible and if produced well there will be 1000/n control of drivers' hours."
Many hauliers have welcomed the move because it will hit the cowboys who routinely break the drivers' hours regulations. But some hope that the new system will include extra monitoring features. Rob Swindells, sales director of Langdons, says: "It would be good if we saw the benefits of it as well by recording information on how a vehicle is driven, how much fuel it burns, its average speed and its route."