weeto:
The deal with GPS equipped tachographs apparently has nothing to do with the authorities being able to see exactly where you have been that day, it’s more to do with recording where the vehicle stops and starts at the end/beginning of the day, just like we used to do on a disc, which would would save drivers logging on/off in the country they are in.
Integrating a Global Positioning System (GPS) with the digital tachograph is
intended to capture data about start and stop locations. Currently the
tachograph simply captures a country code – for instance, UK. Recording where
trucks start and stop will be of little additional help to hauliers who already have
this information, but it is argued that it could be a valuable time-saver for
roadside enforcement officers trying to determine if tachograph data is accurate. http://motortransport.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Change_is_on_the_cards_-_A_Motor_Transport_White_Paper_in_association_with_Tachodisc.pdf
In the 90s there were some mass nickings going on in Castets. ( Wax disc days remember? Had to enter place of starting and ending? ) Anyways anyone in Castets on Monday evening with Cherbourg on their card was invited to pay a 900 franc fine. It was not possible to do legally, you either were speeding, or over hours on card or over hours off card, or speedo was under recording. The Gendarmerie took the fines give a correct receipt and job was done. Anyone who got on their high horse demanding radar read outs etc was FULLY investigated, and ended up paying more after a longer delay. How is this relevant? Tachos with GPS: town A at time X, town B at time Y, gives a good guide. Example: Calais at 06hr00 Monday. Rome 08hr00 Tues. Thats 1800km in 24 hrs. Possible drive time of 15hrs30? Average speed = 116kph, so youre nicked. Easy. Example: Calais tacho reads 10,000km. Rome tacho reads 11,500km. Youre nicked. Lost distance: maybe tacho turned back, or wrong tyres wheels or whatever.
Plenty of drivers where doing it in the uk, and a few got caught.
I do wonder at some drivers though: One told me he had gone from Castets to Aveiro in Portugal (900km, minimal motorways at the time, and a few BIG hills) in a day. I made comment, as one would, and he swore blind that it was legal. Even offered to show me his discs. He even seemed to believe it himself!
Of course it’s a cat and mouse game which each side trying to get a step ahead,
For me personally I have no reason to float the regs, no more than maybe running a few minutes over to get home, I can’t see what benefit it is for the average driver to break the regs, mostly the benefit is for the owner or those who get a business advantage from undercutting the competition, which if left undetected affects those that run legal, it bad enough that companies cut the rates so they have to run their drivers for every possible legal hour and without going beyond that.
I personally hate loads of surveillance and we get more and more regs and surveillance thrown at as to keep ahead of those that break the law.
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and theres the thing…your quite happy to break the regs by a few mins as and when it suits you…if it suits someone else to flaunt them more to a degree that suits them,then why is it ok for you,and not for them?..all a question of degree.same as speeding…most speed regulary,its only when someone speeds more than you,then they become some dangerous lunatic…just a degree to suit your own opinion of whats ok,and whats not.for me,i generally drive as fast as i think il get away with and not get greif…same for the regs…id rather suit myself that what the tacho dictates.
weeto:
The deal with GPS equipped tachographs apparently has nothing to do with the authorities being able to see exactly where you have been that day, it’s more to do with recording where the vehicle stops and starts at the end/beginning of the day, just like we used to do on a disc, which would would save drivers logging on/off in the country they are in.
Integrating a Global Positioning System (GPS) with the digital tachograph is
intended to capture data about start and stop locations. Currently the
tachograph simply captures a country code – for instance, UK. Recording where
trucks start and stop will be of little additional help to hauliers who already have
this information, but it is argued that it could be a valuable time-saver for
roadside enforcement officers trying to determine if tachograph data is accurate. http://motortransport.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Change_is_on_the_cards_-_A_Motor_Transport_White_Paper_in_association_with_Tachodisc.pdf
Fair enough, that’s not the GPS’s intended function to log where the truck’s been throughout the day. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be utilized, as I suspect it logs more than just data from the start and end of the day.
Even without ANPR, the whole reason you have a dodgy tacho is to do more, and go further than you otherwise could. So anyone wanting to modify a tacho and not get caught out, has to consider and modify the GPS data for it not to give a red flag about distances covered. How hard that is I couldn’t say, but that GPS data then isn’t going to match ANPR if cross referenced.
As for downloading the tacho data, do we know for sure how that’s going to be done? As a cable is going to be restrictive. But if it’s wireless, you could be regularly scanned as you pass through pinch points, and really not even know it!
The way I see it, if they link the systems we have available in place together properly, dodgy tacho’s will be futile…
mshenderson:
It’s about time we started saying no to the appalling wages on offer for driving a truck. I know we have to make a living but whist people are working for the likes of Stobarts for 11.00 per hour and think that is decent the money will never improve
