New smart tachograph 4.0, mandatory from June 15

This new legislation, approved by the European Parliament in April 2019, also affects vehicles registered before June 15, but in this case a transitory period is established for the gradual adaptation of these vehicles to the standard. Thus, these vehicles must incorporate the new smart tachograph model between 2022 and 2024, depending on the current tachograph model installed in their truck or coach.

This new model incorporates a series of innovations that will allow greater control of the activity:

The new tachographs will record, in addition to the usual data on driving and rest times, the GPS position of the vehicle . This record will be made at three specific times of the day: at the beginning of the day, every three hours of driving and at the end of the day.

Furthermore, the new tachographs are prepared for remote communication, allowing road control agents, in the future, to extract certain data on the driving and rest times of transport vehicles, without having to stop the vehicle. For this there is still a long way to go, it is expected that about 15 years, although the member countries of the EU can reduce this period unilaterally.

In terms of cards, this measure does not affect or require changing them. Specifically, both driver and company cards can be used without any problem in the new smart digital tachographs. But beware, workshops approved for the installation of tachographs must replace your card with a new one, adapted to the new system.

Certain tachograph manufacturers have reported that some download tools need to be replaced or updated (depending on the model) to perform a successful data download on new tachographs.

These tools, if not be updated, they could give the 'Download successful' message but the generated file, called 'V', would not contain the data correctly.

This is why we advise you that, if you already have the new tachograph in some vehicle of your fleet, check the first downloads and contact the manufacturer to tell you how to update your download tool.