Strasbourg, 03/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 3 July, the Parliament adopted a legislative resolution advocating a thorough revision of legislation on the tachograph. The objective aims to tackle fraud, improve working conditions for professional drivers in the future and thus ensure greater safety on the roads. The tachograph is a device installed on lorries to ensure that driving and rest time by professional lorry drivers is respected. MEPs have therefore paved the way for an electronic and non-manual use of the device and the subsequent so-called “smart” tachograph by 2020.
MEPs adopted the report by Silvia-Adriana Ticau (S&D, Romania) by a substantial majority (488 for, 129 against, 67 abstentions). Bolstered by this vote, Ticau will now be able to begin negotiations with the Council, which has also adopted its position on the subject. The meeting has already been programmed with the Cypriot Presidency for this month.
EP modifications. As Ticau explained to Agence Europe before the vote, “the dossier has become very political because it affects social legislation. Everyone considered revision as an opportunity to change things.” Significant changes supported by MEPs include application of the legislation to heavy-goods vehicles weighing more than 2.8 tonnes (and no longer 3.5 tonnes), vehicles transporting more than nine people, as well as exemption from the tachograph for non-professional drivers in a radius of 100 km (and no longer 50 km). Thanks to satellite technology, it will also be possible to carry out remote control inspections that exclusively target suspicious lorries. This will help avoid situations developing where inspections could take place throughout the journey undertaken and which could possibly penalise “honest” freight and result in their delays.
Multiple effects. The revision therefore mainly aims to get rid of fraud (on 45,000 devices, according to the Commission) and ensure respect for working and rest times, to the benefit of professional drivers. Michel Dantin (EPP, France) said that preventing driver fatigue is also a way of making the roads safer, “because a driver who drives beyond the stipulated times and who does not take a break is a real danger at the wheel”. It is also a way of making competition fairer. This point is particularly important to Mathieu Grosch MEP (EPP, Belgium), who thinks that the current situation is unacceptable “because it means that not only are drivers from Eastern Europe exploited, but it also creates a significant distortion in the level of competition because competitiveness by companies that respect social regulation (Ed: Belgian companies, in this case) is considerably impaired”. Jim Higgins (EPP, Ireland) was delighted to announce that the smart tachograph is expected to help transport companies make savings that are equivalent to €515 million in administrative costs a year. (MD/transl.fl)