Digital tachographs could be with us from April, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
‘Overall the Digitach situation is a little clearer, but still very messy,’ said Allan McKenzie, senior technical manager at the SMMT. An EU meeting, in Brussels, is to look at changes to drivers’ hours rules and hopefully will squeeze Digitachs onto its agenda. If the meeting agrees the EU plans as part of its Conciliation process, that decision will be binding. Once it has been translated it will be published in the EU official journal. 20 days later it will be law, right across the EU, applying to ‘in scope’ vehicles; this means virtually everything over 3.5 tonnes gross.
“The difficulty is that neither we nor anyone else know the true date yet,” said McKenzie so predicting when Digitachs become a legal requirement on new vehicles is too much of a lottery. In practice the start point could be any time from early April to July. And there will be only 20 days warning, said McKenzie.
