Company cars could soon come with tachographs fitted that allow fleet managers to accurately monitor driver hours and vehicle use.
A new EU law, which has just been introduced by the European Commission, has cleared the way for fleets to fit the new digital tacographs in passenger cars, SUVs and light vans if they choose.
Until now, this tachograph technology was only authorised under EU technical legislation for use in heavy goods vehicles and buses, but now the European Commission has extended its scope to smaller vehicles.
Cars, small vans and SUVs pulling trailers that make their combined weight heavier than 3.5 tonnes would bring their drivers into the scope of the EU road haulage working time legislation. In this situation, fleet managers would find digital tacographs useful.
A Brussels communiqué noted that in the past: “For some light vehicles [cars and vans], it was technically not possible to install the equipment…to meet [the necessary] functional and security requirements”.
Now the new regulation, which should come into force by July, “corrects this technical shortcoming by allowing the use of a dedicated, type-approved adaptor for these vehicles” provided they were first driven after May 2006.
Stewart Whyte, membership secretary of the Association of Car Fleet Operators(ACFO), predicts that a small minority of fleets would want to use this equipment: “People who want to display vividly their concern for driver safety and insistence on what they see as proper precautions against prosecution under duty of car legislation and corporate manslaughter,” he said.
However, he predicts that many fleet operators would not want digital tachographs, not least because of the difficulty of managing and using the resulting data.
Mr Whyte also feared that the UK government might want to use the enabling legislation passed by Brussels to introduce laws ordering the use of digital tacographs in cars, vans and SUVs in certain circumstances.
The Commission has also moved to toughen EU policing of digital tacographs, which is accused of being too lax, especially in eastern and southern Europe.
There have also been problems with the technology itself with reports of drivers using two licences to effectively double their permitted driving time and others simply placing a powerful magnet over the dash to disable the digital technology.
The Commission has now tabled a directive for approval by EU ministers and the European Parliament, requiring all 27 EU countries to develop dedicated equipment and software for law enforcement officials and companies analysing data from digital tachographs.
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