The current tachograph system is on the way out but
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Europe has yet to agree on a replacement. Two high-tech systems are being considered. How do they work and which will be most effective? We
The new-generation digital tachograph has moved a step closer with its debate in the European Parliament last month. But some industry pundits still doubt that
the politicians will be either willing or able to make a decision on the options before them.
There is little doubt that a decision is required—and required quickly. It is widely accepted that the present tachograph is no longer an effective referee on social hours and speed restrictions.
Two years ago a German study found that 93% of drivers admitted to breaching drivers' hours regulations while 28% admitted to falling asleep at the wheel.
In this country some police officers will tell you that more than half of all drivers entering the UK have exceeded their driving time.
In some cases the drivers have not even bothered to try and hide the fact; in others the tachograph has clearly been interfered with. In a recent incident a Kent officer stopped a driver who had not taken his daily or weekly rest period in 28 days.
"I am satisfied from what drivers have told me and from the successful prosecutions I have brought that more than half of all international drivers are breaking the rules to one degree or another," says PC John Martin, a Hampshire officer and member of the EU working group examining the proposals for change. "This extends from the driver who encroaches into his daily rest period while he looks for a parking space to the one who drives all over Europe without a full daily rest period for weeks."
So widespread has the practice of tachograph tampering become that there is now a real danger of a downward economic pressures are already in place and if the preamble to the EU proposal for a change is to be believed, the current levels of enforcement do not provide a sufficient deterrent to gross infringement.
"There is a lot to be said for increasing the security of the analogue system so that it is not as easy to interfere with," says Martin. "If things continue as they are the level playing field of competition that the tachograph was supposed to ensure will no longer be level and safety will be compromised."
The problem is that no-one can quite agree on what the present tachograph ought to be replaced by. The Tacho-Smart 3 Project team is currently looking at the design of the electronic equipment that must, according to the published proposals, include the ability to "show and record automatically or semiautomatically details of the movement of vehicles and certain working periods of their drivers."
Expensive
But there is, as yet, no mention of a requirement that that information should be available in other than "visual" or "electronic" form to the police or other enforcement agencies. In effect these agencies will need roadside computer equipment to read the new tacho unless provision is made for an in-cab printer—an expensive additional piece of equipment.
So, far from agreeing on the specification of the new digital system, the 15 member states cannot even agree on the method of implementation. There were Iwo options before a European Parliament committee due for discussion on 21 June and designed to amend Council Regulation (EEC) 3821/85. The first, known as Option 1A, will require both the "old" and the "new" recordin equi ment to be connected to
moving to the wholly electronic system at some point in the future. Manufacturers of the "old" equipment have been lobbying heavily for this system, which is likely to cost 2,000 ECUs per vehicle. The second option, 1B, is favoured by the French government and involves a one-step change to the electronic digital system.
There are arguments for and against both options and it is far from certain which will find favour with the European Parliament when it next meets on 12 July. IA is the preferred option of the UK Government on the grounds that the digital technology is untested and therefore requires a trial period before general adoption. The Germans are also thought to favour this view.
One advantage is that a paper record in the form of the tacho chart remains available for inspection alongside the black-box technology and therefore provides a greater incentive to comply with the regulations.
Against it is the fact that it is unlikely to provide any better defence against fraud than the current system. At the 21 June meeting European Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock said the French will only support Option 1B, for which the technology does not exist.
While it should certainly be possible to wire both systems so that they act independently of each other, the concern is that this more expensive process would be ignored in favour of wiring that meant any interference with one would cause interference with the other.
Option 1B has the advantage of a single change to a more secure system, ease of storage of the data and fast analysis. Among the disadvantages are the as yet unresolved question of a paper record.
Enforcement agencies throughout Europe point out that if the system is to work there has to be at least the threat of detection. Without a paper record (an on-board printer) or expensive computer equipment, random checks would be confined to those officers who had received training in the use of the onboard computer.
It is unlikely that hauliers will take kindly to the additional expense of a printer where the only benefit is to allow enforcement (and by implication, the curbing of their freedom to stretch the rules).
On the other hand, police forces are equally unlikely to wont to spend thousands of pounds on computer equipment for the enforcement of on offence that many of them do not regard as being particularly serious. In this country traffic no longer forms part of the core functions of the police service and chief officers are, therefore, even less likely to want to spend scarce financial resources on computer equipment which has only a single aim.
Conscientious The question of cost becomes more critical the further away from northern Europe that one gets. In enforcement terms the UK, Germany and France are seen as the most conscientious and it is probable that whatever system were introduced, these countries, at least, would make efforts to comply—although it is difficult to see how this could be done without the assistance of central funding.
The picture is not quite so clear among the poorer member states where budgetary restrictions are likely to force a more relaxed view on enforcement.
The consequences of a free for all, where the risk of detection is so
slight as to encourage non-compliance with drivers' hours legislation, are plain. Even in the UK, which has one of the
toughest enforcement
regimes in the EU, police say that infringements are widespread: "Drivers are coming back into the country and producing to me a set of charts which are totally fictitious," says Martin. "I know they are fictitious but I don't know by how much...there is nothing that I can do about it because the records show that the drivers are within the law
although I can see that they are dog
The indications are that the lively debate before the European Parliament will have the effect only of a decision being deferred for at least six months to allow time for more
study. by Patrick Hook
tired."