Trukkertone:
Mate of mine has just been relieved of £30 by VOSA for his tacho being 7 minutes out … is it not a bit unfair on the driver who has no way of setting it right ■■? surely its down to the vehicle operator and tacho centre… well, apart from maybe the driver putting a defect in for it… But on the other hand, I am an agency driver working for different companies, in a different vehicle every time, if i find a tacho a few minutes out do i refuse to drive the vehicle ■■?
just fill out a defect form for it,then you’ve made them aware of the problem,that should cover you as well then.i’ve done this a few times,not sure if they’ve had them adjusted though,this is on the digi tachos though,analouge can be changed so it’s not been a problem if they’ve been out timewise
Trukkertone:
so should you refuse to take a vehicle out if it doesn’t show the correct time by even one minute ■■..
Nah, for 1 minute just change it, digital or analogue. More than that on an analogue just change it. More than that on a digital your choice. One of ours was 3 minutes fast when I got it 2 weeks ago, 2 minutes when I got it again last week and if I get it again this week it will be right again. There is another that was 2 minutes fast when I used it a couple of weeks ago but I haven’t had it again since then so reckon it will still be 1 minute fast when I next get in it.
i take my phone with me and check them by that - as i drive most of them over the course of the month i adjust them by the minute each time - i recon by the end of this year they will all be correct to computer time - which is good enough for me
its not difficult over the course of a week to change the time by 5 minutes and every driver who uses a digi tach truck should be able to do it - par for the course
if i find one thats out by alot it does say its faulty and i’ll get it booked in to be sorted
cheers
Steve
lankyphil:
What’s the “official time” that they have to be set by then?
UTC which means from the last Sunday in March to early hours of the last Sunday in October 1 hour less than UK time. The rest of the year same as UK time.
gm:
its not difficult over the course of a week to change the time by 5 minutes and every driver who uses a digi tach truck should be able to do it
No they shouldn’t. If you can alter the time in one truck by 5 minutes a week then the unit is faulty and should be defected immediately. Five trucks, 5 minute sure but not one truck.
Local time can be altered in 30 minute increments and UTC by 1 minute per week.
Altering the time of the digitach by 1 minute should be taught to every driver and it should be their pride to drive to the right time - but i suppose if they couldn’t give a rats then why should they even want to know how to do it
jrl driver:
i thought you were allowed +/- 3 mins for the clock to be out
(EEC) No 3821/85 on recording equipment in road transport says that in use the maximum tolerances are ± two minutes per day, or ± 10 minutes per seven days.
Not sure if that it the same tolerances apply to digital but if on a digital the UTC is out by more than 20 minutes it must be recalibrated.
These are the tolerances used for Digital units from the testers manual
Check speed (+/- 3 km/h)
Check distance (+/- 1%)
Check clock accuracy (+/- 2 mins/day)
Recalibrate if out by 20 minutes or more.
The important thing is per mins/day, so you could be 14 minutes out after a week and still within the tolerances.
I would defect the clock each week and refuse to drive it when it got to 15 minutes.
gm:
Altering the time of the digitach by 1 minute should be taught to every driver and it should be their pride to drive to the right time - but i suppose if they couldn’t give a rats then why should they even want to know how to do it
If you go into the menu it is fairly simple to work out how to adjust the time in one minute increments.
gm:
Altering the time of the digitach by 1 minute should be taught to every driver and it should be their pride to drive to the right time - but i suppose if they couldn’t give a rats then why should they even want to know how to do it
If you go into the menu it is fairly simple to work out how to adjust the time in one minute increments.
Takes a matter of seconds and few button pushes, I did it a little while ago on the unit we have tonight, now it’s only 3 minutes fast until next week. First time I have used this unit, 07 plate MAN, as it is new to our depot.
gm:
Altering the time of the digitach by 1 minute should be taught to every driver and it should be their pride to drive to the right time - but i suppose if they couldn’t give a rats then why should they even want to know how to do it
If you go into the menu it is fairly simple to work out how to adjust the time in one minute increments.
i’ll have a go at that tomorrow,the merc i’m it’s tacho is 3 mins fast,be a good chance to set it right.
gm:
Altering the time of the digitach by 1 minute should be taught to every driver and it should be their pride to drive to the right time - but i suppose if they couldn’t give a rats then why should they even want to know how to do it
If you go into the menu it is fairly simple to work out how to adjust the time in one minute increments.
i’ll have a go at that tomorrow,the merc i’m it’s tacho is 3 mins fast,be a good chance to set it right.
You are looking for something like UTC Correct.
Well you are on a VDO unit
For those unsure there is a simulator on here to download. i have not used this type but some sims allow you to practice stuff like this before doing it for real.
Long distance clara:
For those unsure there is a simulator on here to download. i have not used this type but some sims allow you to practice stuff like this before doing it for real.
This all depends upon whether the vehicle is fitted with an analogue or digital tacho.
If analogue tacho then the time being recorded on the chart must agree with that of the country of registration of the vehicle. Vehicles registered in France must record in French local time, vehicles registered in GB must show GB local time. Twice a year you get to alter the clock as we all play with ‘daylight saving time.’ It is a requirement of the analogue tacho legislation that a driver can adjust the time, although the mechanism for doing it must only be reachable when the tacho head is open. As the clock on the front of many analogue tachos is 12 hour and the chart is 24 hour it is an easy ‘mistake’ to get the chart 12 hours out.
Digital tachos, regardless of where the vehicle is registered will ALWAYS record in UTC which is about the same as Greenwich Mean Time. This does not change with daylight saving time. You can display a ‘local’ time on the tacho face eg French time, GB time or Polish time, but the recording time will still be UTC. A driver cannot adjust UTC on a digital tacho by more than 1 minute per week. To make bigger time adjustments you need a Workshop Card and the tacho will record the old date and time, the new date and time and the number of the Workshop card if a time adjustment is carried out. It doesn’t bother recording the one minute adjustments made by drivers. The legislation requires that if the tacho UTC is more than 20 minutes different from real UTC then the vehicle must go to a calibration centre for the time to be adjusted.
The clock on a digital tacho is required to be accurate to +/- 2 seconds per day and will probably be a great deal better than that.
Clocks on analogue tachos are required to be accurate to +/- 2 minutes per day with a tolerance not exceeding +/- 10 minutes per week. Again, in reality, the quartz controlled clocks on later analogue tachos will be well within that figure and are usually around a few seconds per day.
Displayed speed on both tachos must, in use, be within +/- 6km/h of true road speed.
Distance travelled must be within 4% for an in use analogue tacho where the distance measured is at least 1km. Same applies to digital.
Back to the original question; if the tacho was a digital then it being 7 minutes adrift from ‘real’ UTC is a case of ‘so what?’ With an analogue, were there any other offences? Was the Examiners watch accurate, did they check time against speaking clock? If there was nothing else wrong then IMHO the FPN seems, shall we say, a little heavy handed? May be worth raising a complaint.
There is another that was 2 minutes fast when I used it a couple of weeks ago but I haven’t had it again since then so reckon it will still be 1 minute fast when I next get in it.
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