As I am not the oldest person to post on this forum does anyone remember 7-day tacho cards? They were a series of seven cards held by a (I think) a thin brass ring in the centre. Each card had a gap so that the needle would drop through to the next day’s card and so on. It was someones job to go round all the units on a Sunday (when running on a Sunday was a priveledge for senior drivers at double time) and change the cards and wind up the mechanism as I think the very early tachos were clockwork! 
Tell kids that today and they’d never believe you!!
The ECMT countries (Sweden being one) also used to use them into the 90s, those were held together with a thin strip of paper on the outer edge of the charts 
your are not the oldest cos i also remember them, but my memory is better than yours, they were not TACHOS, they were merely a time machine like a clocking in machine so your employer could check you were not fiddling your hours, you could accidently stick a strip of paper through the glass and stop em workin tho
green456:
your are not the oldest cos i also remember them, but my memory is better than yours, they were not TACHOS, they were merely a time machine like a clocking in machine so your employer could check you were not fiddling your hours, you could accidently stick a strip of paper through the glass and stop em workin tho
All sorts to stop them working, paperclips,etc!!
I was sure ours were tachos though cause we ran to Belgium and it was a requirement there in seventies. We fell out with the union because we ran with them. We had to be in union to get loaded at certain sites (remember those restrive practices) but the union wouldn’t give us any support in wage disputes, etc. The union rep disowned us because in his words ‘‘our members do not, or EVER WILL, run using tachographs!’’ Often wondered what happened to him
def were not tachos, the time recorders were normaly placed on the rear of the cab and were only ever checked by employers but they gave up on them cos for some strange reason they used to keep stopping, then came log books which didnt seem to work much better for some reason, then we were blessed with the spy in the cab tachograph, now its trackers, isotrack and other such modern technology, by the way can you explain how a mobile phone works im stumped with it 
roadhog69:
As I am not the oldest person to post on this forum does anyone remember 7-day tacho cards? They were a series of seven cards held by a (I think) a thin brass ring in the centre. Each card had a gap so that the needle would drop through to the next day’s card and so on. It was someones job to go round all the units on a Sunday (when running on a Sunday was a priveledge for senior drivers at double time) and change the cards and wind up the mechanism as I think the very early tachos were clockwork!
Tell kids that today and they’d never believe you!!
The good old Time
green456:
def were not tachos, the time recorders were normaly placed on the rear of the cab and were only ever checked by employers but they gave up on them cos for some strange reason they used to keep stopping, then came log books which didnt seem to work much better for some reason, then we were blessed with the spy in the cab tachograph, now its trackers, isotrack and other such modern technology, by the way can you explain how a mobile phone works im stumped with it
Mobile phone - is that something new?
They were tricky to manipulate,as the Timing of all following Tachos of that Pack got affected
In the late 1970’s the firm I drove for had these round clock type things in the cabs a bit like a athletic Discus and every week end the yard forman would re set them .I was held up with a load of lard at Danish Bacon in Nottingham for 5 hrs and when I got back to the yard I was accused of wasting time, the forman removed the card to check my hold up time and then the office rang DB and gave them a rolloking for wasting their drivers time , but never apologised to me for the rollocking I got being wrongly accused for wasting time when it was not my fault.
If the time recorder was fixed to the door panel there was a simple answer, we would take the panel off (easy on an Atki) and leave it at the Redhouse Cafe and collect it on the way back north. It took the management ages to figure out what was happening, 
Then they fitted them to the back of the cab.
regards Kevmac47
I remember seeing one in a cab, and remember the cards, although long before my time.
that chart can’t be from the ones I remember as they had no way of making a speed trace.
As far as I can remember they only worked by the movement of the cab rocking.
del949:
that chart can’t be from the ones I remember as they had no way of making a speed trace.
As far as I can remember they only worked by the movement of the cab rocking.
No they were the early 7 day tacho charts first used in Germany iirc. As the stylus came to 00.00 it dropped onto the next chart in the head.
I have seen the ones you mean but the only pictures on Google seem to be incorrect or copyright