digital tachos

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS EURO DRIVING FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Have any of you european truck drivers discovered how to
fiddle your digital tacho yet■■?. :laughing: :laughing:

2

chrismac:
Have any of you european truck drivers discovered how to
fiddle your digital tacho yet■■?. :laughing: :laughing:

:unamused: :unamused: :unamused: No ( allegedly ) but I bet the VOSA boys who are members on here would love to know :open_mouth: :smiley: :wink:

3

NO and i’m not interested in learning how to if there is a way but a mate of mine who doesn’t have a digitach claimed an irish lad could put his to sleep using a quirk of the ignition switching on and off, like a power surge thing and that he could then drive around and it would record a rest period instead of driving.
then i pointed out that even if he did this there would still be a discrepency between the mileage the truck has recorded and the mileage the tacho has recorded - this would be an obvious pointer for any inspection of the vehicle that a malfunction or a fiddle has occurred.
more driver myth methinks!!!

4

Several drivers have been caught in Spain fiddling digital tachos, apparently it has something to do with a laptop and a certain programme costing about 1500 euros :unamused:

5

I don’t even know how to operate the thing let alone fiddle it

6

this weekend at peterborough i discovered that the irish have developed a card that costs £500, when iserted into the digital tacho it wipes clean all the previous information and records an error fault message instead.
you’ve got to love em haven’t you?

7

So far as i know the relevant information is stored on the driver’s personal card, not in the tacho itself.

8

Driveroneuk:
So far as i know the relevant information is stored on the driver’s personal card, not in the tacho itself.

Stored on both. The unit will hold details on drivers and their driving time etc for about a 12-month period.

9

well i didn’t know that… learn somat new everyday i do.

10

also the italians have a system of using a digital camera and some wires to bypass the digitach and record break and the driving goes onto a card in the memory chip of the camera. works on the basis of a camera with date+time on it although of course i know nothing :wink: :wink:

11

I must be getting old - I was thinking a 15 hour day was long enough without trying to find ways of fiddling more.

12

the digital tacho unfortunatley i have one info is stored on the card the gaffer has to download it every few days the tacho also stores all info its definatley costing me money and puts an extra ten minutes on most journeys.so therefore im losing at least 40 mins per 9 hours one good thing i have found out thou if you are stopped for speeding there is no proof if the police/vosa want to look at the info,the readout will only say you have been doing eg: 10 to 20 mph for 2 hrs of the day 20 to 30mph for 3hrs of the day 30 to 40mph for 1 hr of the day and so on.they can not tell what speed you was doing at a certain time of day.the trouble with it is every time you move it clocks up a minute even if you move a fraction it clocks another min up.it would be better if it was rounded to the second like the old tacho.

13

on the course i attended last week i was told if the vehicle goes over the speed of the limiter this is recorded as an event on the card and the vu and the symbol which shows on the print out/download is >>

14

chris.:
on the course i attended last week i was told if the vehicle goes over the speed of the limiter this is recorded as an event on the card and the vu and the symbol which shows on the print out/download is >>

Ive been lurking on and off for a while but this thread just caught my eye

and the above post is Interesting, In that I have been driving for the last week with the new card and I get overspeed indicated on my dash sometimes only at 57mph! often nothing at 59mph (digital readout on speedo)

Noticed the >> “Number”, “Date”, “time(number)” “00h00” entry on the printout
But what does it mean, can anyone decode the line for me

Whats the point of an overspeed on the printout if its below 60mph

This 57mph overspeed is driving me nuts, is it just a warning or is it recording an offence and what constituets an offence I thought it was going to be for over 60mph for 2 minute

Can anyone point me to any sensible web based information I can look up its not that I want to get away with anything, I just want to understand the parameters of the limitations we are to be hounded by :wink:

Jim
PS: I can read my card (I’m an ex IT man) I can read start, finish POA driving rest but cannot find any reference to speed info on it

Jim

15

as the instructor said…the overspeed says the driver let the vehicle go over the limiter speed,if vosa looks at it and its a regular occurance they will look further and ask why did you not use the brakes/retarder.
a local company got a right going over because of an incident like this,the advise to me was dont do it use the brakes.

16

chris.:
they will look further and ask why did you not use the brakes/retarder.

And the answer would be it isn’t necessary to use the brakes or retarder because the speed limit for LGV’s on UK motorways is 60 mph so no offence has been committed, provided of course it happened on a motorway and the speed limiter is in working order. It is not an offence to let the vehicle go past the limiter speed.

17

I posted on this issue some weeks back.

As i now understand it: the m/way speed limit for an LGV in Britain is 60mph.

However, the vehicle must be fitted with a speed limiter (age related exceptions accepted) and that speed limiter must work.

Right Neil?

18

The speed limiter can be in full working order but you can still exceed it’s limit and reach the motorway speed limit, without committing an offence. The limiter must only prevent a vehicle being powered past a set limit.

19

jcfd55 you might find this thread useful, particularly the postings by myself & grumpybum of 19th December.

http://trucknetuk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21135&highlight=speed

20

Driveroneuk:
jcfd55 you might find this thread useful, particularly the postings by myself & grumpybum of 19th December.

http://trucknetuk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21135&highlight=speed

Thanks for all that info everyone. Its a real shame that the overspeed cannot be related to actual max speed limit but I guess its too much to hope that the powers that be could ever be pragmatic

However, I’m much clearer now and realise there is no need to panic each time the symbol comes up

Jim

PS: practising my withering look in the mirror for when the transport manager get it wrong and I get the chance to treat him in a patronising manner :sunglasses: