my digicard expires on the 7th of august…i have my new card(arrived 2 months ago)start date 8th august.
what do i need to do on the 7th/8th???bearing in mind i work nights and i may be driving at midnight on the 7th!..will my old card stop working at midnight???do i need to stop and put my new card in?..make printouts?..for the 7th?..8th?..both?
any advice would be welcome.
Why not put your new card in on 7th August and see what happens. If it comes up “invalid” then you will have to use your old card.
Obviously take both cards with you the night that your card expires. Try to stop a couple of minutes before Midnight. The old card will work upto Midnight but will not be recognized by the Tacho after that time, your new card will not be recognized until after Midnight. Once the Tacho has got past the ‘Witching Hour’ in reality 00:00 eject old card and insert new card and continue driving. Get old card downloaded and keep with you for the next 29 days, after that you can bin it. Not too sure of the legality of having to produce the old card because the ‘new card’ is your current card but it keeps the folk in yellow & black Galaxies happy. No need for printouts in this scenario.
If you do happen to be driving when Midnight comes around stop as soon as possible afterwards and swap cards over. Do a ‘24 hour driver activity from VU’ write an explanation on it as to what happened; something along lines of ‘on Motorway when card expired, drove to first suitable stopping location at xxxxx.’ Keep printout with you for next 29 days then hand into employer.
My digi card got ejected at 01:00 it run out in June .The taco is one hour fast then 
.
Read the letter that came with the card - gives you the full procedure.
You need to make VU (Vehicle Unit) print outs at beginning and end of shift for the 2 days prior to your card expiring (day before and day of expiry). if you aren’t driving on those two days - no print outs needed 
Put your licence or digi card number on the back, name and signature. Carry the print outs as a legally required record for 28 days.
use your old card as normal. if it expires whilst driving - not a problem just carry on until you next stop. change cards. Still do a print out (VU) at the end of that shift. Everything you did will be on the print out even after the old card stopped.
Keep your old card with you for 28 days - get the company to download it ASAP after expiry
Sometimes the new card may not work for 24 hours from when it should - just to VU print outs
All that is in the letter that came with the card
geebee45:
Obviously take both cards with you the night that your card expires. Try to stop a couple of minutes before Midnight…
… Keeping in mind that midnight UTC is 1.00AM at this time of year in the UK. …
geebee45:
Obviously take both cards with you the night that your card expires. Try to stop a couple of minutes before Midnight. The old card will work upto Midnight but will not be recognized by the Tacho after that time, your new card will not be recognized until after Midnight. Once the Tacho has got past the ‘Witching Hour’ in reality 00:00 eject old card and insert new card and continue driving.
Presumably though the midnight geebee45 is referring to here is midnight UTC, which is 01h00 BST so your card will expire at 1am local time and not midnight.
Paul
Ahh that’s handy to know - mine expires later this year, and I was wondering if I should hold back applying for the new one with as few days as possible to spare, in case they immediate “start date” it with still two months to go on my old one!
I might as well send in my chit now then… 
Daft thing is, this will be my second this year, having had my current one replaced “new” during the great digicard black death of spring this year… 
yep - no point delaying applying for the new card. You’ll end up with two. One still valid and one not valid.
The new one won’t be valid until after the date the old one expires.
Are the forms sent out automatically like tax disk ones, or do I have to patronise my local disappearing post office counter, once I find out where it is… 
usually arrive about 3 months before expiry.
There have been issues with drivers not getting the reminder which I think is connected to address changes. i.e moved house, changed the address on the licence but this hasn’t been reflected in the driver card record.
well…it all went very smoothly,i took printouts for the 2 days before(although im not sure i needed to as the card worked perfectly recording all data up till the moment of expiry).
i pulled into the services at 23.55 and at midnight it came up card expired…i removed the card and inserted my new card and away again…no problems…downloaded both cards on return to magna park.
i spoke to a vosa officer last year regarding the same thing.
he just said “put it in early”.
so i did, got pulled again as usual without any problem.
But it doesn’t work until the start date
kr79:
But it doesn’t work until the start date
mine worked a few days before.