VDO supports fleets preparing for tacho changes
Continental’s tachograph division VDO has warned of the potential consequences for fleet operators of failing to meet the 31 December deadline for the fitment of the correct tachograph equipment for vehicles bound for international journeys.
“The next key date set out by the European Union Mobility Package 1 is looming,” said VDO.
“As stated in previous publications, failure to comply with this and therefore having an incorrect tachograph installed can result in a fine of up to €30,000 and 12 months’ imprisonment for drivers stopped in Europe, plus their vehicle being immobilised until the problem is rectified.
“One of the key considerations for fleets/drivers should not just be the availability of the stock but the capacity of the tachograph centres to service the additional work to retrofit the correct tachograph. This is why VDO have been and continue to advise all fleets/drivers to make sure you get booked in as soon as possible, in order to reduce any potential problems in the New Year.”
In addition to communications to fleets and drivers, VDO says it is currently working closely with the UK tachograph centre network to ensure they are set up to handle the retrofit requirements, providing them with specially designed kits and introducing new features to their calibration equipment to ensure a quick and seamless installation takes place.
This not only supports the workshops, says VDO, but aims to reduce fleet and drivers’ downtime and costs. All VDO partner workshops can be found on the VDO workshop website (www.workshop.vdo.co.uk) under ‘Find VDO workshops’, and will have posters and banners on the premises highlighting that their workshop is a VDO Certified Partner.
“The upcoming deadline does not just affect the need to replace the 1b digital and analogue tachographs to the latest smart tachograph version 2, but there is also an impact on day-to-day tasks performed by all drivers – tachograph manual entries – where the recording of all driver activity will be increased from 28 to 56 days,” warned VDO.
“Throughout 2024, VDO has seen a significant increase in the number of fleets and drivers contacting us for support with tachograph manual entries. As a result, an eLearning course was created to support everyone with this topic.
“There are currently thousands of drivers enrolled, with an increasing number of requests each week to register onto the platform to take the course, a trend that we believe will only continue into and throughout 2025.”
To further help the industry with key topics such as tachograph manual entries, VDO is developing a newly released free VDO Fleet app. It is currently available on Android Play Store and Apple App Store and enables fleets with VDO Fleet tachograph software to access their account while on the move through their mobile – enabling access to live asset tracking and driver availability, and downloading of mass memory and driver card data from VDO’s DLK Smart download key or the latest DTCO 4.1.
“The developments that are expected to be introduced soon are aimed at the driver and should be able to help them complete and upload manual entries from the app on their phone, giving drivers a potentially more well-known and user-friendly device to make the task easier,” said VDO.
