Concession could mean chaos on tachographs
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by Martin Hayes
A SERIOUS situation which would almost certainly cost operators money and could even mean some of them having to take vehicles off the road, may develop over the retrospective fitting of tachographs. Curiously, the trouble has arisen from a concession on the date of fitment to new vehicles granted by the Common Market countries after representations from the British Government.
Under existing Common Market law. member states agreed that all new vehicles would be fitted with tachographs from January 1, 1975. Existing vehicles would all have the instruments fitted retrospectively by January 1, 1978. Following British pressure the EEC. agreed to allow a 12-month "catching-up" period — until January 1 1976 — for fitting new British vehicles. No similar concession was granted for existing vehicles. Thus the time allowed for retrospective fitment has been seriously compressed.
Because few British operators are likely to fit new equipment in advance of the obligatory date, this will mean that more than 200,000 vehicles will have to be fitted during 1977. There will doubtless be a particularly high peak in the last three months before the regulations take effect. The result will be drastically higher costs of fitting (because expensive installation facilities will have to be set up just to cope with this peak) and a risk that certain vehicles will either have to operate illegally or be taken off the road because they cannot be fitted in time.
The same sort of problem has been met and overcome in France and Belgium because the respective governments have taken action. France has introduced legislation requiring certain vehicles to be 'fitted with tachographs by January 1 1973. In Belgium the date chosen is a year later.
It has been calculated that if similar legislation were introduced in Britain the figure of 200,000 units in 1977 could be reduced to 128,000 by a January 1 1975 date or to 88,000 by a January 1 1974 deadline.
Clearly, operators will want to know whether the additional costs which tachograph manufacturers — forced by the short-term demand to employ extra skilled personnel and supply additional workshops — will be passing on to them will be greater than the extra capital charges involved in fitting the instruments two or three years earlier. But it seems likely that these costs will be higher and anyway the advantages in easy fitting without losing vehicle earning time through having to join a queue could be substantial.
The country's largest tachograph supplier, Lucas Kienzle, has 45 Fitting centres and 10 in the pipeline. It is aiming to have a depot within 20 miles of most operators. The company says that there is no possibility of "do-it-yourself" fitting by operators, even those with hundreds of
vehicles. This is because precise calibrations — requiring specialized knowledge and equipment — are required. These must be certified by a qualified installer before a Department of the Environment test certificate will be issued.
When recent Government legislation about seat belts, tyres and rear markers was introduced there were costly last-minute scrambles to fit equipment. With tachographs the problem will not be supply, but installation. This can take up to half a day per vehicle to complete but increased downtime may result if there is undue pressure on the facilities. There is no likelihood of a concession on the retrospective deadline on January 1 1978, so there is only one way to prevent a costly last-minute panic: Government action now to encourage or enforce early fitment.
One way the Government could avoid introducing legislation would be to make some sort of concession on the log book requirement.
So far there has been no public indication that the Government even appreciates the problem which is developing. However, the full facts must have been presented to it by now at the joint tachograph working party meetings at which the manufacturers are represented.
There is still plenty of time for action — on the lines of that already taken by existing members of the Common Market.