Over the weekend I did a run with a digital tacho enabled vehicle. It had been my first run for around 7 months.
My card was working fine 7 months ago but…
I put the card in the tacho over the weekend. It read my name and my last withdrawn date correctly and then said ‘Ready to drive’.
I was a little way down the road and the Tacho starts flashing ‘Driving with Invalid Card’. None of the shift appears to have recorded. But remember, the tacho had told me it was ready before I pulled away.
Now I remember there was a global issue with tacho cards last year and I just wonder if this is anything to do with it.
Should I send it off for replacement? Do I get charged if they establish it was down to the tacho unit and not the card?
If the card is faulty you should contact the DVLA on 0300 790 6109 within 7 days to report it as faulty, you can then continue driving for 15 days without a driver card.
To get a replacement you should send the faulty card with Form D777B to the DVLA.
There is no charge for a replacement driver card if it’s found to be faulty, you can confirm this when you report the card faulty to DVLA.
dar1976:
Over the weekend I did a run with a digital tacho enabled vehicle. It had been my first run for around 7 months.
My card was working fine 7 months ago but…
I put the card in the tacho over the weekend. It read my name and my last withdrawn date correctly and then said ‘Ready to drive’.
I was a little way down the road and the Tacho starts flashing ‘Driving with Invalid Card’. None of the shift appears to have recorded. But remember, the tacho had told me it was ready before I pulled away.
Now I remember there was a global issue with tacho cards last year and I just wonder if this is anything to do with it.
Should I send it off for replacement? Do I get charged if they establish it was down to the tacho unit and not the card?
Thanks in advance.
Dean
Mine is doing exactly the same Dean. I posted on an old thread about it a couple of hours ago. If you re-insert it a couple of times it seems to ‘forget’ and functions okay then, until you put it in a different vehicle then you have to repeat the process. Mine is still logging data okay despite it saying it’s invalid.
Just tried to speak to DVLA about chances of sorting it out at my local DVLA office but you can’t get through to anyone. If you follow their automated service the only option available is to send it to them on D777B like Rog says, or, declare it as lost and apply for a new one using the form, but in that instance you have to enclose the £19.99 replacement fee. And yes I know you get 15 days grace to drive without a card but I don’t want to take my chances arguing that point with the wallahs at the place I do most of my driving.
Hi dar1976,
Don’t know if this will be of any help to you but I had a similar problem during the winter on my first night gritting, as I remember it turned out that the problem was because of the gritter being shunted and loaded ready for me in the yard without the driver inserting his digicard . When I put my digicard in (we don’t have to use them as gritters are exempt but our bosses just like us to use them for their records once we are out on the road) a similar message appeared to the one you got. After frantically looking on the net for a reason/solution it was suggested that once I got that message to press the “ok” button , I believe it was, and then everything was ok, simple as that really
Don’t know if this will be of any help but my first thought was that if you have only ever driven on EU rules then the previous driver will always have used a digicard and withdrew it immediately before you put your card in and you will never have had a problem. Idont know the type of work you do but could the previous driver before you have driven the truck, if only for a short distance without using his card for whatever reason? Apologies if this does not help but your issue sounds very similar to the problem I had.
And yes I know you get 15 days grace to drive without a card but I don’t want to take my chances arguing that point with the wallahs at the place I do most of my driving.
