iTECH: EOBRs Across the Pond

With a federal mandate on the use of electronic onboard recorders looming over the trucking industry, U.S. carriers may be following a regulatory course similar to one that their European counterparts have been dealing with for several years.

In May 2006, Europe’s trucking regulations made it compulsory to have an electronic onboard recorder — termed digital tachograph on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean — on all newly registered vehicles weighing more than 3,500 kilograms (about 7,716 pounds). And while European truckers initially had problems with the original devices — they rounded up minutes, meaning that drivers engaged in collection-and-delivery work could lose up to 30 minutes a day from their allowable driving time — trucking’s response is becoming less grudging with the implementation of the second generation of tachographs, which are digital.

“It’s certainly the way forward,” said John Burbridge, group quality and compliance manager for Turners of Soham, a British carrier with 1,000 tractors and 1,400 trailers operating out of 32 depots across Europe. “Initially, there were a few faults, as the original equipment advanced on a by-minute rather than a by-second basis, meaning that time was miscalculated over the course of the day, but that issue has now been remedied.”

Burbridge, whose company’s operational profile includes reefer, tanker and dry freight transport, added, “Compliance issues have been significantly reduced. Most of our trucks are driven by two people every day, and, in the past, accounting for this was complex.”

Digital tachographs record data onto a chip-enabled driver card that is the same size as a credit card. Driving a vehicle without one is an operating violation, and a damaged card must be replaced in 15 days. During that interim period, the driver has to take manual printouts from the tachograph at the beginning and at the end of the shift. In addition, data from the card must be downloaded at least once every 28 days by the operator of the relevant vehicle.

Mark Jones, managing director at dump-truck operator Express Freight Solutions and EFS Group, Burnley, Lancashire, is not completely convinced about the reliability of the driver card.

“The need for a driver’s card means that you have to manage the drivers carefully, but it is the vehicle downloads that are the biggest problem,” he said. “When a driver comes into the office, you can download his card there and then, but our vehicles are turned around and back out of the depot very quickly. That can lead to management problems.”

Turners is working to circumvent that problem with remote download devices currently being tested on 20 vehicles. These devices enable the carrier to download data from the driver card every seven days for analysis and reports using Smartanalysis software from technology provider Exentra. Data from the driver cards are downloaded automatically, removing the need to manage the whole process. At this relatively modest implementation rate, Turners said it saves around 10 man-hours per week downloading data — which can be costly because, unlike in the United States, drivers are paid by the hour, not miles driven.

“We decided to use automatic remote download of digital tachograph data to safeguard our compliance and reduce the man-hours spent managing the process,” Burbridge said.

The driver card also can be a very effective enforcement tool. A driver who has been stopped for roadside inspection — either at a checkpoint or flagged down by enforcement personnel — may be subjected, in addition to safety checks, to questions about immigration and taxation.

The driver card also can show driving-time offenses over the previous 28 days. And while some EU countries will issue retroactive speeding tickets and allow drivers to pay the fines at a later date, many countries now issue on-the-spot fines — and the driver will not be able to continue the journey until either the fine is paid or a deposit for the amount of the fine is handed over, pending a court appearance. In addition, some countries have equipped their police cars with credit card readers, and others have police escort the offending driver to an ATM to settle the account.

Fines and deposits in excess of $4,000 are not unknown, with Spain being particularly assiduous in this regard. In addition, a driver who has exceeded his or her daily or weekly driving time may find his or her vehicle immobilized for up to 45 hours, in order that the authorities be satisfied that a weekly rest period has been taken.

In addition to the driver card, three other cards are required in Europe: A control card is issued to police and law enforcement agencies that conduct roadside checks; a workshop card is issued to companies that fit and calibrate the tachographs; and an operator’s card is issued to the vehicle’s license holder. These cards enable data from the vehicle’s tachograph to be downloaded at least once every 56 days — a legal requirement.

Since 1986, analog tachographs have been used to police the industry. These devices recorded much of the same information that the digital units currently do — such as vehicle speed, distance traveled, driving time and rest periods, among other things. Data were recorded onto a waxed paper disc, which was inserted into a device that could hold 24 hours worth of information.

Beginning in January 2008, 19 months after digital tachographs became the law, a driver stopped for a roadside check was — and still is — obliged to produce operating data that cover a maximum of 29 days of driving. Once the driver hands over the data to the carrier, which holds the operating license for that vehicle, that information must be retained for a minimum of 12 months — or two years, if it’s being used to record working-time-directive data.

According to one carrier manager, however, the system can be problematic for those who are not as technically literate as they need to be.

Graham Bellman, group transport manager at Travis Perkins PLC, a large construction supply company operating more than 2,000 vehicles, said: “If your operation is staffed by drivers and administrative staff who are fully up to speed . . . then the shift to digital tachographs should not prove too onerous. But if they’re not, then you can expect problems.”

He added, “The workforce is aging, and over the past five years, the driver’s job has become a lot more complex in terms of both technology and legislation. It seems slightly strange that we now have an expectation that drivers have to carry three different cards,” referring to the driver’s license, the digital card and the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence/ Continuing Professional Development card.

The DCPC/CPD is a Europe-wide identification card, which shows that professional truck drivers have completed 35 hours of additional training every five years. The legislation will be fully implemented by 2014, by which time any truck driver failing to complete the additional training will be barred from driving.

“There are too many opportunities to get things wrong,” Bellman continued. “Our task as an industry should be trying to simplify things, not making them unnecessarily complex.”

Bellman also said there was a gap between large and small fleets in terms of acceptance of the new system.

“An owner-driver friend of mine has no computer — there are people who do not have a computer at home or in their office and have no interest in doing so, either,” he said. “He will stop trading when he needs to switch over to a digital tachograph. It’s very easy — but wrong — to assume more IT knowledge than actually exists.”

But Tony Christie, owner of TC Transport, which operates a small fleet engaged primarily in the distribution of domestic appliances, disagrees with Bellman’s assertion.

“Initially, there was a significant problem with the first generation of digital tachographs stealing minutes. However, we very rarely go up to our maximum driving time, so that wasn’t a huge problem for us in particular,” he said. “However, it’s made management a lot easier. In the past, we had to send our tachograph discs away for analysis. Now I just download every month, and the vehicle and driver analysis is done on an office computer. I couldn’t say that it has leveled the playing field, but it has certainly made our job a lot easier.”

That is a view shared by David MacKenzie, transport director at the 60-vehicle CS Ellis Group Ltd.

“More and more of our fleet are now fitted with digital tachographs, and it’s made my life a lot easier,” he said. “It’s important to get the right equipment, though. Our original download device was terrible, and it took about an hour to download data from each vehicle. Now it takes a matter of minutes.”

It would be something of a stretch to suggest that the implementation of digital tachographs in Europe has gone without a hitch. It hasn’t, but some 5½ years on, they are an accepted part of the operational landscape.

For U.S. carriers, however, the European experience throws up an interesting and potentially worrisome possibility.

“By far, the majority of European transport is now carried out by drivers employed on a per-hour basis. And while not technically illegal, payment on a miles-driven basis is frowned upon as likely to encourage rule-breaking,” said Bellman of Travis Perkins.