My main gripe with stoneridge is that you have to press and hold the number one for a few seconds to eject the tray that holds your card rather than there being a dedicated eject button like on siemens. Took an hour of my life it did. Other than that I think they are a more solid unit and the portable, battery powered card download tools are great. I voted siemens mainly due to the lack of an eject button on stoneridge.
I find either easy enough to use. Biggest problem is digi tachograph training in a lot of places tends to be some guy showing you how to use it in about 30secs, whilst he doesent really have a clue how it works. “Yeah just shove it in the slot, select “no modify enteries”, then select UK, off you go”.
There is a bit more to it than that, best advice is to read the manual, and its pretty straight forward.
Adding on time, i don’t agree with Coffee about it saving you time in traffic.Generally i’m doing distance work at night and i prefer the digi card because shows me my driving times easier, less hassle. But god help you if your time is tight and you get caught up in stop start traffic. Can add a hell of a lot of time on. My earlier post in another thread, sitting in traffic moving for about 10secs stop for a few moves move off again get minutes added on and can really add up. its ok if you get paid by the hour like myself but if your on a salary or owner driver it can really screw you up.
Suppose depends how to judge driving time, if they wanna judge driving time as stuck in traffic suppose its ok, if its actual time the vehicle is moving then it doesent work and doesent give an accurate protrayal of actual time the vehicle has been moving.
I hope the digi tachographs get ripped to pieces in a court case because of the way it stores time, if you bought somthing like a stopwatch or any other time keeping device you would return it if it rounded up to the nearest minute.
I’m voting for Stoneridge because use it the most and prefer the way you can quickly look up and see how long you have been driving. Rather than pressing buttons. but there aint anything really in it between the two for myself.
Another reason why i voted Stoneridge, the Siemens has the eject button, i dont like it 
I pressed it by mistake the other week instead of pressing the button to change activity and it ejected the card. Prefer Stoneridge where you have to hold down button 1.
the truck weve got on hire at the mo has the siemens, first time today ive had to use my card been in my wallet since may last year
must of pressed the eject button at least twice today
Dazza:
Coffeeholic:
Crap tachos fitted to crap trucks, seems like a match made in heaven.An interesting contribution to the debate from a site administrator. And what kind of truck do you drive Mr Holic?
Ah well, judging by the poll, I’m not the only one who hates them.
Dazza
I thought he was mild !! They are ■■■■■■ made for ■■■■■ trucks and only technologically challenged drivers struggle with them. You put a card in and press a few mode buttons, how hard can it be? I has about twobuttons on the thing for christ sake.
So I’m technologically challenged?
Thank you Mike-C for having bugger all of a contribution to make to this debate. It seems to me that most of the drivers who appreciate the Stoneridge system are fine with it just as long as they select “no manual entries”.
That’s alright then, I’m sure VOSA would understand.
This is precisely my point, it might only have “twobuttons”, but it’s about as simply to use (legally) as threading a needle with boxing gloves on.
Mike-C has probably seen it, done it and bought the t-shirt. You can’t tell him 'owt!!
Dazza:
So I’m technologically challenged?Thank you Mike-C for having bugger all of a contribution to make to this debate. It seems to me that most of the drivers who appreciate the Stoneridge system are fine with it just as long as they select “no manual entries”.
That’s alright then, I’m sure VOSA would understand.
This is precisely my point, it might only have “twobuttons”, but it’s about as simply to use (legally) as threading a needle with boxing gloves on.
Mike-C has probably seen it, done it and bought the t-shirt. You can’t tell him 'owt!!
No, i agree its a crap tacho (the Stoneridge). What i don’t agree with is that it is as hard as a English trying to learn Chinese. Granted its not as straight forward as in telling you almost in your face what to press, but it only takes a few times to fiddle with it to get the hang of it. You can tell me anything about them, i’ve never had any instruction on them, i just read about them before i used one. You’ve been shown and your getting several violations in a week?
Somethings going wrong ?
Used both now. Stoneridge takes decades from putting card in to getting the go. Manuel entries pain in the rear. End of shift card removal again can be slow.
Siemens totally opposite much faster and easy to put manual entries in.
Oddly I find the siemens doesnt rob you of as much time as the stoneridge which makes no sense!
I reckon a compident guy/gal who has half a brain but never used a dig before could jump in a siemens equiped truck and be on their way in minutes, wouldnt like to say the same for stoneridge.
As for the eject button yeah agree but my old floppy wax tacho the eject button was next to the mode changer so same problem.
In ireland merc’s are fitted with stoneridge not siemens
Mike-C:
You’ve been shown and your getting several violations in a week?
Somethings going wrong ?
I’ll make myself clear. When I said, “god knows how many violations I’ve had this week” I was exaggerating. To be truthful I have had about 6 in two and a half months (all but one on a Stoneridge tacho).
I have indeed been shown, but by someone who was reading directly from the manual and even he struggled.
There are around thirty lads at my place, and not one has a decent thing to say about Stoneridge. Even the works’ cat hates them 
Imp makes a good point, about how user-friendly the Siemens is.
geebee45 reckons they may be changing the software on these - let’s hope it ends up looking like a Siemens.
Anyway, don’t take my word for it, read the poll results, 9 to 1 against Stoneridge.
Must say something… 