Tachodisc

Who is legal?

When the amended Drivers’ Hours Law regulations came into force on 11th April earlier this year, the wording related to checking drivers’ tachograph records changed. Regulation 561/2006 states that ‘regular’ checks must be completed by operators to ensure that their drivers comply with the law, rather than the ‘periodic’ reference in the previous Regulation. This subtle change shows that more emphasis is being placed on the analysis of drivers’ records, but the question of whether proportional analysis / part analysis is legal remains.

Anne McDougall, Director at Tachodisc, has queried the exact meaning of ‘regular’ with VOSA, and has been told that “an operator must make sufficient checks to ensure drivers comply with the law”. Many operators however take the view that there is no requirement to have all charts checked for every driver and that proportional or partial analysis or checking is adequate.

Analogue charts are ‘checked’ on a basic level by a significant number of operators despite having little or no specific training in many cases. Digital implementation, however, sees the digital data stored in a binary format which is impossible to read without some form of software or the use of an Analysis Bureau.

Anne confirmed that many operators choose proportional analysis of their analogue charts; providing a selection for full analysis, and sight-checking the remainder themselves. Providing the operator can prove that the charts have been checked and action taken where inconsistencies were found this was considered acceptable, and as such these customers understandably want the same proportional analysis / part analysis carried out on their digital data.

Tachodisc has liased with VOSA who has stated that they would be ‘concerned’ if operators were relying on only some of their data being analysed, but until it’s explicit in law many operators won’t change. Currently many operators do not have every chart for every driver analysed:  forcing the industry to have all of their digital data analysed could increase operators cost significantly – many operators will find the additional financial burden difficult to absorb. But this is the current reality of the situation.

Anne believes that we are in for a period of real uncertainty but warns that the situation is unlikely to be clarified until someone is held accountable in court and precedent is set.

How to keep within the law

“Analysis itself can be a time-consuming and sometimes daunting task, and these unresolved issues only serve to compound the situation,” says Anne.  Recognising this, Tachodisc is constantly pushing the boundaries of research and development in order to offer clients groundbreaking tachograph technologies and services, that not only help drivers and operators keep within the law, but also simplify the issue of data downloading and analysis. 

Tachodisc also recognise that drivers and operators have different business needs, operational constraints and budgets, and so have developed a range of affordable options that include:

• Smartanalysis Bureau Service – A flexible web based analysis service for both analogue and digital tachograph data, providing a quality solution for compliance management. 
• Clockwatcher - an easy to install computer software package that allows operators to carry out their own out their own analysis for both Drivers’ Hours Law and the Road Transport Directive in one operation. 
• Clockwatcher Lite – a read-only software that allows digital data to be viewed from both driver cards and vehicle units.  It also allows operators to read speed data in a table format and highlight overspeeds.

For further information or advice on digital analysis, please call Tachodisc on 01925 283328

TAC041

Back to listings