Smart Tachograph (ST), the updated version of Digital Tachograph (DT), is designed to improve transportation safety by documenting driving time, breaks, rest periods, and periods of other activities performed by a commercial vehicle driver. Drivers are expected to adhere to speed restrictions and rest times by a system that tracks their every move. A weary driver is more likely to cause an accident that could have catastrophic consequences for people and infrastructures, even if breaching the road rules is theoretically beneficial.
Use of the tachograph is required for vehicles with a mass of more than 3.5 tons and more than 9 passengers, including the driver, on board (in passenger transport). It is an electronic gadget that collects data from various sensors and records a driver’s driving duration, breaks, and rest times. Since 2006, tachographs have become digital.
A tachograph is a device used to track the speed of a vehicle
Trucks and inland waterways vessels are equipped with tachographs, which keep track of driving and rest intervals, speed and distance travelled. This device is often employed to ensure that drivers adhere to the rules when it comes to driving and rest periods
Digital versus Analogue Tachograph
The analogue tachograph and the digital tachograph are the two most common types of tachographs. Analogue tachographs employ a wax-coated tachograph disc, on which steel pins are used to create the striped patterns. There are two types of tachographs: the first is the analogue tachograph, which has been mandatory since 2006. Trucks must be equipped with a new type of tachograph, dubbed the “smart tachograph,” starting in June 2019. The pros and cons of both tachograph systems will be discussed below.
Analogue Tachograph Advantages and Disadvantages
It takes 24 hours for an analogue tachograph disc to complete a full rotation of the wax-coated surface, which is marked by a stylus. Consequently, discs must be manually replaced when they have finished their path, or the machine will continue drawing lines over the initial trace. Using an analogue tachograph disc for longer than it can accommodate is against EU Regulation 561/2006. However, the motorist has no way of knowing when this will happen.
It is possible to tamper with an analogue tachograph record by interfering with the arm or marker in various ways, deactivating the system by short-circuiting it, or even replacing the power supply with one that has a blown fuse to prevent it from working at all. Analog tachograph discs are easy for drivers to forget to insert, switch with other drivers, or create information on an auxiliary chart to give the appearance of another driver taking over, a practice known as ‘ghosting.’
Despite this, the visual depiction of an analogue tachograph’s data makes it easier to understand than data from a digital tachograph. Analog tachograph records are easy to detect attempts to manipulate. However, digital tachograph data can still be tampered with and is much difficult to recognise.
What You Must Know about Digital Tachographs Pros and Cons
Due to its official replacement of the outdated analogue tachograph, a digital driver card and gearbox unit are required. Data can be secured to specific company cards if the vehicle is sold or otherwise transferred using digital tachograph software. Data cannot be modified or removed, and the margin for interpretation error is greatly reduced.
However, even though the digital tachograph software can detect any potential violations instantaneously, the data is extremely difficult to grasp without the software, computer, and a digital card reader. Due to the lack of starting and ending cities, only countries may be used to pinpoint the exact location of the incident. It is nearly hard to distinguish card-swapping amongst drivers with an electronic tachograph system, but this may be done more readily by comparing the handwriting styles.
