Oct/Nov 2006

Within a couple of years it should be possible to download driver and vehicle data directly from digital tachographs via GPRS or a similar wireless technology - obviating the current need for physically collecting driver smartcards periodically and downloading the data on them via some form of card reader.

This is the thrust of an initiative by the heavy truck electronic interface group of ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. This body, known formerly as the FMS Group, plans to achieve its objective by pushing through an extension to the FMS-Standard interface, the open standard for accessing electronic data via the CANBus data spine that is present on virtually all modern heavy trucks.

Apparently the objective will be more complex to achieve than it sounds. ACEA says it has not hitherto been possible to access and transmit tachograph data in a secure, safe and uncomplicated way because of what it calls "existing legal and technical barriers and yet unresolved regulatory issues". But it is hoping to resolve these issues.

Vehicle operators can of course already gather most of the same information collected by tachographs by using other on-vehicle devices, and can download this data wirelessly; but it doesn't count in legal terms as tachograph data, which still has to be collected and stored separately.

 

A legally-accepted framework for gathering "real" tachograph data wirelessly would not only simplify the whole process, but could also potentially enable tachographs to take over some of the information-handling duties currently requiring a separate on-board computer.

According to ACEA, progress on the initiative could be constrained by the certification requirements of the European Union and necessary technical developments by the digital tachograph manufacturers. However, the truckmaker members evidently see it as their role to press ahead with this aim anyway. They say a solution is unlikely to emerge until 2009 or 2009, but in the context of the years it took to get the digital tachograph into use, that seems a fairly short time span.

The members of ACEA's heavy truck electronic interface group are DAF, Iveco, MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Scania and Volvo. Volvo's director for product strategy and planning of "soft products", Per Adamsson, has already said that his company aims to support the proposed standard with its Dynafleet Online telematics system, and some of the third-party telematics and fleet management systems suppliers have also said they support the initiative. One of the first was fleet management software specialist cfc solutions, which says it is ready to handle the data.

Whether national legislation could be amended quickly even if the group achieves its planned timescale remains to be seen, but it is a step that will no doubt be welcomed by vehicle operators, who by then will be even more accustomed to wireless data handling than they are now.