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26th May 2005, Page 36
26th May 2005
Page 36
Page 36, 26th May 2005 — Be smart abroad
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The flexibility of the August 2005 deadline leaves it open to interpretation by other EU member states.

The DfT has said it will not insist or people having smart cards yet, which is fine in this country, but we need Europe to agree so drivers don't get puked up for not having them in other countries," says Steve Williams, policy affairs manager of the RHA.

"We're asking people to apply for them as soon as possible, but you could lose a year if you buy it now and they delay it for a whole year. You can get a card that starts in 2006— but you have to pay for it up front."

Clive Burnett at Scene advocates a piecemeal approach: As digital is coming I would be inclined to introduce at least some into the fleet to start gaining experience and use them as an opportunity to begin driver training and familiarisation."

Robin Sharp of the FTA disagrees: would suggest putting all new vehicles into one depot so you can convert each depot electronically. The big problems will come when operators are mixing and matching analogue with digital tachograph systems. Some will be trying to manage four or five different streams of data ina mixture of real time and UTC."

Digital tachographs will be set to 'Universal Time Co-ordinated' (UTC) — another name for Greenwich Mean Time — so the stored record will be an hour behind in British Summer Time.

And sharp advises: "If buying from August this year buy digital because it could be difficult to retrof it at a later date."

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Organisations: European Union

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