Tough tachos needed in '96
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by Brian Weatherley • Thousands of truck and bus operators who bought new vehicles registered after 1 January will have to take them off the road to be retrofitted with a tamper-proof "armoured" tachograph sender cable. The new EU tacho laws designed to prevent tacho fiddling has found manufacturers struggling to comply.
Since the beginning of the year, EC regulation 2479/95 has required all newly-registered CVs fitted with electronic tachographs to have their sender cables protected by a continuous plastic coated steel sheath. The move is intended to stop anyone interfering with the tacho However, due to delays in drafting the legislation and supply problems, truck makers have been unable to meet the changeover deadline. As a result, hundreds of new vehicles with old-style cables have been registered since 1 January in breach of the EU law.
After pressure from manufacturers, the Department of Transport has agreed that up to 30 April 1996, chassis without the latest cables built before I January 1996, can still have their tachos initially calibrated.
But each manufacturer must supply the DOT with the identification numbers of those vehicles, and recall them to retrofit the new cable within three months of registration. The vehicles will then be resubmitted to tacho centres for re-sealing as a minor repair. There will be no charge for the retrofit, although vehicle downtime will inevitably be incurred unless the retrofit can be carried out at the same time as a service.