A Quick Tachograph History lesson

The obligation to record driver's activities was introduced in 1969, for social and road safety reasons.  Recording was made via a paper book on which drivers were supposed what they did each working day.

Tachographs were introduced around 1985.  Over this time the tachograph has evolved. In the early days there were mechanical tachographs, which progressed to the early electronic units, but these were subject to interference by unscrupulous users. In order to combat this interference some amendments were made to the regulations that required diagnostic features to be incorporated into the tachograph, and for the signal cables to be armoured to prevent tampering.

All of these analogue units record the driver’s periods of duty on a waxed paper disc - a tachograph chart. These are not always interchangeable between the different units and are vulnerable to damage and tampering.

The EU wanted to take advantage of technology now available in order to ensure the security of the recording of the driver’s duty periods.  This introduced the Digital Tachograph.  The aim is that the Digital Tachograph is less vulnerable to illegal acts by users to distort the data. The new system will also allow for easier and better control of driver's hours by operators and the enforcement authorities.

From May 2006 all new vehicles over 3.5 tonnes except for those exempt have had to be supplied with a Digital Tachograph.

Source: VOSA