Brussels, 22/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - At the meeting of foreign affairs ministers on Monday 22 July, the Council of the EU approved without debate the inter-institutional agreement on revising the regulation on tachographs, the devices which monitor heavy vehicle drivers' rest and driving times (see EUROPE 10853). This will help tackle tachograph fraud and thus ensure better social and competition conditions in the road transport sector.
The Council's approval relates to the compromise obtained in May which was approved by the Parliamentary committee for transport and tourism (TRAN) last July, following negotiations headed by Silvia Adriana Ticau MEP (S&D, Romania).
The regulation revision also includes the fitting of a new generation of smart tachographs, that use satellite technology, on all heavy vehicles from about 2017 or 2018 in international transport. Vehicles that are already on the road will have 15 years to adapt to this legislation. The compromise also means that member states enable easy downloading and even remote checking of suspect data, via wireless data transmission to control authorities that could then make targeted roadside checks.
The legislative review allows an exemption: vehicles of less than 7.5 tonnes driven by non-professional drivers within a radius of 100 kilometres (up from the current 50 kilometres) fromthe firm's base will be exempted from the new rules. This was one of the most keenly debated points of the inter-institutional negotiations. (MD/transl.fl)