Road Transport: Commission welcomes the political agreement on new smart tachographs
29/10/2012
The Commission takes note with satisfaction of the political agreement reached on new smart tachographs in today's Transport Council. The main goals of the new legislation are creating equal conditions between road transport operators, avoiding road accidents due to long driving hours and reducing the administrative burden for operators by providing the professional drivers with a smart and tamper-proof tool which ensures a uniform enforcement of the social rules and can easily be used and connected to an on-board computer.
Vice-President and EU Commissioner for Transport, Siim Kallas, said: "The tachograph helps professional drivers to avoid over long driving hours which cause fatigue and accidents. It also creates equal conditions between road transport operators. I would like to insist on the importance of quickly introducing the smart tachograph proposed by the Commission. It will prevent fraud and misuse of the existing tachograph system and at the same time make it considerably easier to use for operators."
The smart tachograph proposed by the Commission will record location data using global navigation satellite systems, remotely communicate with roadside enforcement officers and have a universal interface to communicate with applications of intelligent transport systems used by the transport operators. The regulation proposal also introduces higher standards for workshops entrusted to install and calibrate the tachograph, electronic exchange of data between national enforcement authorities, provisions on the training of control officers and exceptions from the obligation to use tachographs for certain users within a uniformly extended radius (100 km).
The discussions in view of an early second reading agreement between the European Parliament and Council have already started, and the Commission hopes that a deal could be found within the next months.
For more information:
Pre-Council Memo
Commission proposal on recording equipment in road transport 
