Legal conditions

Since May 1, 2006, German law requires the compulsory equipment of all newly registered goods vehicles weighing over 3.5t and omnibuses with more than 8 seats with a digital tachograph.

The legal basis for the introduction of the digital tachograph is Regulation (EC) no. 2135/98 of 24th September 1998. The intention of the European Council with this regulation is to replace analog tachographs that are subject to manipulation with new digital tachographs.

The regulation (EEC) no. 3820/85 on the harmonization of social legislation relating to road transport activities deals in particular with driving and rest times and the minimum age of the driver. This regulation was repealed by EC regulation 561/2006 on April 11, 2006. Obligations regarding the installation and operation of the digital control device are set down in the Council Regulation 3821/85 on recording equipment in road transport. Annex 1B of the European regulation 1360/2002 determines the technical functionalities of digital tachographs.

The following articles of EC regulation 561/2006 came into effect on May 1, 2006:

  • Article 10 section 5:Download and storage of data from the on-board device and the driver card
  • Article 26 section 3: Company obligations of preservation and presentation and
  • Article 26 section 4: Obligations of the driver and driver smartcard
  • Article 27:Compulsory installation of digital tachographs in new vehicles

The obligation of presentation intends for the data on the driver smartcard to be read-out every 28 days and stored on an external data medium. Thisdata is to be stored safely for a period of two years by the company or by an external service provider. The data from the mass memory of the digital tachograph is to be copied every 3 months and is also to be stored safely for the period of two years. If printouts are generated, these are to be archived in a legible form in chronological order and stored for one year according to article 15 section 1 of the regulation (EEC) no. 3821/85

Legal requirements for the introduction and operation of digital tachographs and also for the use of analog tachographs in German road transport are listed as follows:

Information about this is available from the homepage of the German Federal Ministry for Commercial Transport (http://www.bag.bund.de) or the Federal Motor Transport Authority (http://www.kba.de). http://www.bag.bund.de http://www.kba.de .

This information is not exhaustive. intellic takes no responsibility for the correctness of this information.

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