Transport Help UK Ltd

Telephone: 0870 760 2269

This is it, the smart card digital tachograph, it could be fitted into all new goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes as of 5th August 2005.

The advice to all drivers is to apply as soon as possible for your own Drivers Card and keep it with you and safe until you need it, it could be tomorrow.

To use a digital tachograph all drivers will need a smart card. You can obtained one from DVLA in Swansea, phone 0870 850 1074 to ask for an application form to be sent to you.

To obtain a smart card you must have a photo card driver’s licence or apply for one with your smart card application. The smart card will cost £38.00 and is the property of you the driver alone, it will have your photograph and signature on it. You must insert it into the tachograph at the start of your daily duty in the same way as you complete a tachograph chart now. At the end of your daily duty remove the card. You must still use the mode switch to identify other types of work other than driving, in exactly the same way as you do now. The smart card will hold at least 21 days of your driver’s hours records and probably up to 28 days. After that time the card will overwrite day one, in effect you will always have with you at least 21 days records of your activity.

The Tachograph in the vehicle holds a duplicate record for at least a year, of every driver that drives that vehicle. Operators have a legal obligation to check and keep those records in the same way as with tachograph charts now.

If you lose your card a replacement can be applied for again from DVLA in Swansea they cost £19.00 BUT they will not be sent directly to you.

The replacement card will be sent to a goods vehicle testing station of your choice, where you will be interviewed by a VOSA Traffic Examiner who will ask how and why you lost your card. You will be asked to sign a declaration explaining and confirming the circumstances of the lost card. In effect you will be asked why you have failed to keep your tachograph records?

Remember that the tachograph itself will hold a duplicate of your records and is accessible to VOSA. It is my opinion that lost cards will result in a VOSA visit to your employer to examine records in vehicles.
So don’t lose your card !

It is likely that you will all be required to drive a vehicle fitted with the new tachograph during your work this year. As of August 2005 tachograph calibration stations will probably not repair old analogue tachographs but fit new digital units in their place.

There are four types of card. Operators and drivers will have a card each, Driver Card, the property of the driver & Organisation Card for the operator. The two other cards are for Workshops that fit and calibrate tachographs and the Enforcement authorities Police and VOSA.

Drivers Cards as previously mentioned are the property of the driver and hold record of work on a micro chip inserted on the rear of the card similar in appearance to new chip & pin bank cards.

Organisation Cards are issued to operators of goods vehicles again from DVLA at the cost of £38.00 and are used to lock the tachograph information uniquely to your organisation, and will only allow the down load of information to your company, ensuring a competitor cannot access your vehicle records.

Control Cards are issued to the Police and VOSA only this card will enable an enforcement officer to see all the information held on the tachograph in the vehicle.