Jan/Feb 2009

Under a modification to EU regulations, it has become legal for the first time to use adapters in vehicles rated at under 3.5 tonnes gross to enable them to have a tachograph fitted.

Although such vehicles do not normal require a tachograph, they become liable to have one if they are operating at higher weights – which they can do legitimately, for instance, when pulling a trailer. But the design of many such vehicles was never intended to accommodate these instruments, so some users faced the prospect of illegal operation.

Now, following lobbying by organisations such as Britain's Freight Transport Association, there has been a change of heart. Use of an adapter is to be allowed, so that the speed signal required by the tachograph need not be taken directly from the gearbox, but can be taken from any acceptable data source. The adapter has to be fitted and calibrated under controlled conditions in the same way as the instrument itself.

Up to now the UK's Vehicle and Operator Services Agency is understood to have taken a lenient view of transgressions, but only on a case-by-case basis, and not according to any formal policy.

However, the concession currently applies only to vehicles registered between 1 May 2006 and 31 December 2013, and the FTA has expressed concerns about what will happen after the final date. Andy Mair, FTA's head of engineering policy, says the organisation is seeking advice on this from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

The new ruling is contained in Commission Regulation (EC) No 68/2009 of 23 January 2009 adapting for the ninth time to technical progress Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85. Incidentally, it uses the alternative spelling 'adaptor' throughout.