What are tachographs and their advantages and disadvantages?

The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) have merged to form the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and have the authority to verify the hours and business days of the drivers to maintain road discipline. For this they have designed the tachograph. This is a device designed to record the hours worked and the speed of vehicles at any given time.

In the UK, public vehicles with more than 8 passenger seats or HGVs in good condition must install tachograph units so that driving patterns can be monitored. Legally, if you own a bus, minibus or coach or HGV vehicle, the tachographs must be installed and calibrated by a designated authorized tachograph center.

Necessity is called the mother of invention, and that is why new technologies are continually emerging to save time and energy. This is also one of the main reasons to replace old mechanical tachographs with new and better updated digital tachographs. The difference between the two is that the former uses a pencil on white paper that keeps moving throughout the day. And therefore, one rotation was supposed to be equal to 24 hours. There were more possibilities of fraud and manipulation of the old one, that is why today digital tachographs are used that do the same job but with more precision and efficiency. Tachographs are beneficial for the safety of employers, drivers and other road users as data manipulation is an illegal crime and can lead to a heavy fine or even imprisonment of the driver.

This device monitors the driver’s driving hours and, in other words, takes care of the driver’s rest hours. Subsequently, there are several rules for truck / bus drivers that only allow them limited working hours. And according to EU rules, drivers cannot drive more than nine hours a day or more than 4.5 hours at any one time. As a consequence, it is very necessary for the driver to take a break of at least 45 minutes before starting a new journey. Also, all truck / bus drivers must follow these rules and cannot drive more than 56 hours during one week and not more than 90 hours during two weeks. These rules are established to facilitate drivers and avoid mishaps and accidents.

It is important that the transport managers of passenger and heavy vehicle transport companies stay fully up-to-date on the legislation, with relevant training courses widely available.