'Black box' to oust the tachograph
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• EC Transport Commissioner Karel Van Miert has said that "black box" style monitoring equipment will replace tachographs, as soon as agreement is reached between technical experts in the member states.
In a written reply to a European Parliament question, the Commissioner confirmed that a committee of experts is studying the possible replacement of tachographs by on-board computer monitoring, which cannot be introduced under current EC transport legislation.
He said: "First discussions have shown that the tachograph disc, although not perfect, certainly has advantages in comparison with the storage of data in computers, which could be manipulated without any trace.
"Nevertheless there is certainly potential for modernising the equipment," he said, adding: "Modern equipment will be introduced as soon as the government experts can agree on it."
Despite its imperfections, the tachograph is still preferred by the Commission to the Japanese system of fitting heavy vehicles with indicator lights to show when speed limits are being exceeded.