May/June 2005

Tachograph and Working Time Directive analysis and monitoring systems are to be made available on a stand-alone basis for the first time direct from the Freight Transport Association.

The complete solution incorporates an office-based reader which can process both conventional analogue charts and the new and digital tachograph memory cards, plus PC-based analysis software. The combined package will cost £1,275 to members, and from this summer will also be also available at a premium to non-members.

The system will also take account of changing EU drivers' hours regulations. The FTA says the software has been specially commissioned, and can be updated constantly to take account of legislative changes. The hardware is also unique to the FTA.

According to Robin Sharp, the organisation's general manager for development: "In the past, only a modest proportion of all tachograph charts were analysed. Now, to comply with the WTD, operators are expected to monitor all records all the time." He says this means that even small operators who were previously not stretched by tachograph rules suddenly need to change the way they work. "The FTA's package is particularly effective for such operators," he maintains.

 

The FTA's package also includes a small portable reader for periodically downloading the full data store in the internal memory of an electronic tachograph - a task expected to be required every few months.

According to Sharp, the FTA is the UK's biggest single player in tachograph analysis, handling 3 to 4 million charts a year. It has 30 bureau-based staff and 45 roving staff permanently allocated to the job.

Since there are estimated to be 200 million charts to analyse, he argues that this means the additional requirement for chart analysis under the new regime is significant.