IP/09/80

Brussels, 23 January 2009

Digital tachograph for road transport: new measures to prevent fraud and equip light vehicles

Today, the European Commission adopted a package of measures aimed at detecting and preventing abuses of the tachograph system, used to record the driving time and rest periods of professional drivers. Furthermore, the new legislation permits the use of dedicated, type-approved adaptors for light vehicles that are required to comply with the Drivers' Hours and Tachograph rules.

Firstly, amendments to Directive 2006/22/EC , which deals with enforcement and checks of social rules relating to road transport activities, require Member States to develop dedicated equipment and software that can be used to analyse the data from the digital tachograph. Secondly, a Commission Recommendation sets out best practice guidelines for national control authorities when carrying out checks of vehicles and the recording equipment, whether at the roadside, at company premises, or at workshops.

This package of measures will significantly improve the methods and procedures used by control authorities in detecting and preventing the use of devices intended to defraud the tachograph system, whilst at the same time keeping unnecessary delays and inconvenience to law-abiding operators and drivers to an absolute minimum.

Regulation (EEC) 3821/85 , as amended in 2006, requires that digital tachographs are fitted into goods vehicles and buses that come into scope of the Drivers' Hours rules and which are first brought into service after 1st May 2006. However, for some light vehicles (M1 and N1 class), it was technically not possible to install the equipment in such a way that it meets all of its functional and security requirements. The new Commission Regulation now corrects this technical shortcoming by allowing the use of a dedicated, type-approved adaptor for these vehicles.

For more information see:

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/road/social_provisions/social_provisions_en.htm