Brussels, 20/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - By 2017, all lorries will be fitted with “smart” tachographs, making fraud more difficult and reducing the administrative burden, and, in so doing, saving transport companies around €500 million per year. Technical improvement to current tachographs, which will allow them to monitor rest periods and driving times, will bring better working conditions for drivers and have a beneficial knock-on effect for the safety of all road users.
The European Commission has just put a proposal for the revision of tachograph legislation to the European Parliament and Council following on from reporting of fraud by monitoring authorities and the recommendations from the high-level group of independent stakeholders on the administrative burdens.
The Commission wants to make use of new technological opportunities to improve the effectiveness of digital tachographs. It is estimated that several thousand heavy goods vehicles are being driven on the European transport network with tachograph machines that have been tampered with or falsified cards. This also has serious repercussions for fair road transport competition.
New generation tachographs will be better integrated into intelligent transport systems and will make use of satellite technology. This will mean that data can be recorded automatically improving monitoring and providing for more efficient logistical organisation. The new system will also mean that roadside checks can be better targeted. Thus, drivers will be stopped less often, saving time and reducing the administrative burden for transporters. In general terms, the Commission is keen to improve the security levels of equipment. It will use standards set by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) to harmonise standards, particularly the seals which can too easily be tampered with.
The Commission wants the new equipment to be in service by 2017. A transition period of five more years is planned when the two generations of tachographs will exist side by side. (Cor./transl.rt)