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IRO adds its voice to calls against smart-card tachos
Page 6
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I by kicky Taylor
The International Road Transport Union (MU) has called for the new smart-card digital tachograph to be dumped in favour of a multi-purpose "black box".
The IRU, which represents hundreds of thousands of hauliers across the European Union, is adding its voice to that of the Freight Transport Association, which has mounted a campaign to have the legislation, currently under the jurisdiction of the European Commission, derailed (0M20-26 March; 17-23 April).
Smart-card digital tachographs are due to be fitted to all new vehicles from August next year, but manufacturers have failed to meet type approval deadlines, and insiders warn that there Is no prototype available for EC testing due to begin this August.
The 111U is urging the European Commission to "revise the digital tachograph specification and legislation.., for a more flexible digital device'.
It wants the device to be able to monitor driving and rest times, deal with infrastructure charging systems and Incorporate fleet management functions.
Guy Willis, spokesman for the IRU says it is lobbying hard for the change, but does not know when the EC will respond. "We want something that will work and we think it's worth taking a little longer to get It right."
The FTA is also keen to see the development of an integrated "black box" rather than forging ahead with smart-card digital tachos which, it claims, will be outdated almost as soon as they are introduced.
"It's better to get it right now because the confusion we see coming In the future will be costly. Transport operators are going to pick up the bill so why shouldn't they have a say in what kit they want?" says PTA head of external affairs Geoff Dossetter.
Ironically, the EC published proposals last week for tolling systems to be interoperable from scheme to scheme and country to country along transEuropean transport networks. This will require technology to be capable of reading all the toiling and payage schemes in the EU network. Proposals on Interoperability of road user charging are expected to follow.
But Willis warns that there's only a set amount of available space within truck cabs for additional technology. That fact is backed up by Gist engineering director Sam de Beaux, who says Gist vehicles currently have four black boxes in the cab for temperature monitoring, diagnostics, driver behaviour and load configuration. "if we could have something that could accept everything we'd be interested," he says, but he adds that a black box that does everything "will be expensive".
Road Haulage Association chief executive Roger King would also like to see a multi-function box as long as its development does not delay the 2006 introduction of the UK lorry road user charging scheme.