On 5 and 17 March 2025, two important meetings took place, attended by Małgorzata Pander, Piotr Żółty, Mateusz Włoch and Bartłomiej Zgudziak from Inelo, Eurowag Group. Key issues concerning tachographs, ERRU system violations and the development of tachograph functions, including the new ones introduced by DG MOVE, were discussed.
CORTE meeting (5 March 2025)
The mater of tachographs in 2.5–3.5 ton vehicles was discussed during the meeting. An interesting point was that Norway will be the only country to require tachograph installation not only in vehicles realizing international transport, but also those realizing domestic transport.
In the context of ERRU system, there was a heated discussion regarding the lack of harmonization in recording violations. An example was the situation when the failure to calibrate the tachograph results in a penalty being incurred for every day of delay, and these days are then recorded in the ERRU system. For instance, a 15-day delay mean 15 violations of the same type. In other countries, such situation incurs a single penalty and the inspector records one violation in the system. As a result, one company may stay “in the green” while another may be flagged as “red” in the same situation.
Information from DVSA in the UK show that companies in this country prefer to cooperate with “green” companies, as they are seen as more reliable and less risky, especially within the context of delays connected with prolonged roadside inspections or transport suspension.
During the discussion, discrepancies between countries were noted regarding the matter of inspections that end in giving a caution rather then a penalty, which, in some countries, is not reported at all. Currently, the European Commission maintains that each country has the right to sanction violations individually, which is reflected in EURR system and which causes significant discrepancies.
DG MOVE meeting – Smart Tachograph Expert Group (17 March 2025)
During the meeting with DG MOVE, the current state of the work on ONSMA was discussed. Unfortunately, Romain Durand of DG MOVE informed that the end of the first quarter of 2025 as the deadline for works was probably unrealistic.
One of the hot topics was the functionality of the Stonerigde tachographs, which are the only ones without any problems recording the border crossings by drivers with G1 and G2V1 cards. These tachographs have an additional functionality to record border crossings even on older cards. It is a significant problem, because drivers using other tachographs – such as Continental – don’t have records of border crossings on their older cards, which can result in the penalty during the roadside inspection. Possible solutions were discussed, including adding similar functionality by Continental company, which so far hasn’t introduced it in its tachographs.
At the end of the meeting, the matter of the new tachograph functionality, which allows marking of the beginning and the end of the passenger transport, was extensively discussed. Romain Durand presented the new “suitcase” icon, to be used by the drivers to mark the beginning and the end of the passenger transport. Piotr Żółty of Inelo reacted to the idea that the removal of the card from the tachograph would automatically end such trip. He pointed out that frequent removing of the cards by drivers would cause problems in the case when they are travelling as a part of a crew – it would lead to the erroneous ending of the trip. The topic will be discussed further at the coming meetings.
