The Digital tachograph is used as a legal instrument.
Surely the fact that there is at least one proven flaw with its programming (POA ■■■■■■■ then in a court case that would introduce reasonable doubt for any other case that relied on evidence purely from (the accuracy of) digi tachos.
After all if a witness in court can be proven to have told lies before, then their evidence will be possibly disregarded.
Pepipoo anyone?
I’m reliably informed that the counting of POA as break is not a flaw, I haven’t yet seen a reasonable explanation of why it does happen and don’t expect to any-time soon, but apparently it’s not a fault in the software … yeah right 
I got told on a course that POA is counted as a valid driving break in other EU countries, it’s only the UK which won’t accept it, although they will for WTD purposes. Not sure if this is 100% correct, but it would explain why the software is written that way.
Gary
scaniason:
I got told on a course that POA is counted as a valid driving break in other EU countries, it’s only the UK which won’t accept it, although they will for WTD purposes. Not sure if this is 100% correct, but it would explain why the software is written that way.Gary
I don’t know whether this is correct - but i don’t think it is.
The tachos aren’t faulty - they are programmed that way on purpose. Even the latest software release from october 2011 is still programmed this way. if it was an error wouldn’t it have been sorted then?
I also haven’t actually seen any written evidence of why they are programmed this way. I have seen plenty of guesses and ideas but nothing that satisfies my curiosity.
shep532:
scaniason:
I got told on a course that POA is counted as a valid driving break in other EU countries, it’s only the UK which won’t accept it, although they will for WTD purposes. Not sure if this is 100% correct, but it would explain why the software is written that way.Gary
I don’t know whether this is correct - but i don’t think it is.
The tachos aren’t faulty - they are programmed that way on purpose. Even the latest software release from october 2011 is still programmed this way. if it was an error wouldn’t it have been sorted then?
My point exactly - I don’t believe it’s an error, it’s obviously been designed that way, and I can’t believe that it would be a very difficult thing to change if necessary. This is what leads me to think that UK might be interpreting things slightly different to how it was intended…
What is the point of POA anyway? If you’re not driving, working or resting what the hell can you be doing?
mucker85:
What is the point of POA anyway? If you’re not driving, working or resting what the hell can you be doing?
Only time I’ve ever recorded POA was when I got to work and my truck wasn’t back off it’s night trunk
Except for perhaps the French, I’ve yet to meet a driver from any other European country who uses any mode other than driving or rest/break. Having said that, I even once got told off and had a finger waggled at me by a French official because my digital tacho defaulted onto ‘other work’ and he said that if I’m not driving, it should be on rest, no exception. In my experience its only the UK that bothers with all this WTD nonsense with POA and Other Work, the rest of Europe just do it like we used to back in the day when the driving part of the job was the main part of our duties, not WTD complicance and mode changes etc etc etc.
The simple answer as to why digital tachographs count ‘availability’ as ‘break’ is that the law covering their construction and function requires them to. If you want to read it then you need to read either Annex 1 of Council Regulation (EEC)3821/85 as amended or Council Regulation (EC)1360/2002, which effectively is Annex 1 and a couple of other bits.
It isn’t a major problem to change the software to not count ‘availability’ as ‘break,’ however it is more of an issue to change the relevant Regulations. It took 5 years to get the change that defined how the instruments would allocate time to ‘driving.’ In reality it may be better to ignore the things and wait for the arrival of the ‘new’ tachograph around 2017.
Not surprised that an enforcement officer from France didn’t know what the law actually requires. Would probably be a good idea if he went and read the Regulations quoted above as they apply without national modification across the whole of Europe. He might add Council Regulation (EC)561/2006 to the list as that definitely shows that you cannot do any ‘work’ whilst on ‘break.’ The interesting bit comes when you consider that ‘availability’ and ‘period of availability’ are not the same thing and ‘periods of availability’ the duration of which is not known in advance is ‘work’ anyway. Confused…so where the legislators!!
In summary, there is no ‘fault’ with the digital tachograph, it is merely doing what it has to do, as defined by the relevant legislation. Whether you agree or not with the legislation is an entirely different matter.
geebee45:
and wait for the arrival of the ‘new’ tachograph around 2017.
Any ideas yet what fun and games this will bring? Any change in legislation or just the way it records the current regs?
robinhood_1984 said;
Any ideas yet what fun and games this will bring? Any change in legislation or just the way it records the current regs?
Lots of ideas being floated around at the moment. There seems to be quite a lot to do with security measures; trying to make it more expensive to beat the equipment that at present can be beaten by a cheep magnet. Also popular is recording of places by GPS connection, although how often is open for debate. Remote downloading by Company and enforcement.Also that the driver licence and driver card could be combined as one card, although that in itself could cause a logistical and administration nightmare.
There was a proposal that coach drivers’ working day should be limited to 9 hours start to end, although that appears to have been dropped, for now.
Much of what is proposed is formalising in the Regulation what the VU manufacturers are already building into the current VUs. Best thing is to wait and see what the new technical annex contains when it’s published. Anything before that is pretty much rumour and abstract thought. Like we’re going to be able to influence the decision anyway!