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France could enforce smart-card tacho law
Page 7
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MERCEDES-BENZ truck sales director John Baker has outlined a potential nightmare scenario for international truck operators planning to run to, or across, France this August.
According to Baker, the French authorities are the only ones in Europe who have taken any steps to comply with the introduction of the new smart-card tachographs on trucks, due for introduction in August this year.
French company Actia is the only lirm which has submitted a digital tacho system for approval by the EU authorities. If its system is approved, and the French government then decides to push through the law. France could be in a position to enforce the regulations, spelling disaster for many operators entering the country, says Baker. However, an EU spokesman says the suggestion of any such move by the French authorities sounds "rather far fetched", and believes such scaremongering is "highly speculative".
Other industry observers have indicated that any such manoeuvre on the part of the French authorities would be viewed as anti-competitive and outlawed by the EU.
"Given that France often takes a laissez-faire attitude to much of the law emanating from Brussels it would be ironic if it was to go hell for leather enforcing this directive," one expert says.