• European legislation that might have introduced a new generation
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of tachographs from 1 January 1998 is set to be postponed because EU ministers can't agree on which system to use.
The proposals include fitting black boxes with warning lights showing drivers when they are out of hours. But they will not be approved at the next Transport Council meeting on 19 June.
The French and Dutch Governments support the black-box option; Germany wants a half-way measure, with smart cards fitted to existing tachos.
But according to the Freight Transport Association's Owen Thomas, the delay is likely to be a long one. "Preliminary talks on the subject have only now been tabled, at the end of the French presidency," he says. 'With Spain and Italy following there ore unlikely to be solid proposals in the near Future. The Dutch Government, which is more likely to re-introduce the changes, takes over the presidency of the European Union in January 1997.