From July 1, 2026, commercial vehicle drivers face new rules impacting their use of the tachograph to record their hours. Drivers risk new fines as fresh tachograph rules kick in for vehicles undertaking international journeys.
New Tachograph Requirements
From July 1, a full smart 2 tachograph must be fitted into goods vehicles over 2.5 tonnes used for international journeys for hire and reward. If the international journey is for the driver or company's own account and driving does not constitute the main activity of the driver, there is no requirement to fit a tachograph.
Goods vehicles weighing over 2.5 tonnes and less than 3.5 tonnes that are used only in the UK do not have to have a tachograph fitted.
Types of Tachographs
There are four types of tachograph: analogue, digital (fitted in vehicles registered from May 1, 2006), smart 1 (fitted in vehicles registered from June 15, 2019), and smart 2 (various fitting dates). The difference between a full and a transitional smart 2 tachograph is that the transitional unit does not have the location verification facility (Galileo) within its software.
Compliance Advice
Martin Candish, head of compliance information at Logistics UK, said: “To ensure compliance, all operators that conduct international journeys should carry out a review of journeys, vehicles and drivers to check and see if they fall under the regulations. This also includes operators in Northern Ireland with vehicles over 2.5t entering the Republic of Ireland, as they will also need to have a ST2 installed. It is important to check operations now, and delaying any further could mean long waiting times to get devices fitted and risk not being compliant with the potential for fines and disruption.”
“Roadside inspections can be stressful for drivers especially where technical irregularities are found,” Candish continued. “Fortunately, irregularities and technical errors with the system are not considered to be the fault of the driver, but they can increase disruption and distress. This is why it is essential that drivers receive appropriate training on how to operate the tachograph, understand the current legislation and know what to do if there are technical problems such as security breach error codes. This will mean that drivers can produce all the necessary records correctly at the time of inspection, so it goes as smoothly as possible, and they can return to their journey with minimal inconvenience.”
