The minimum needed to satisfy EU regulations is a download device that collects the data from the Vehicle Unit and Driver Cards. Only one is required for all your vehicles and drivers. However, you really need tacho analysis software such as our Pitstop Flag to make sense of the data. It has many important options - please see Pitstop Features - such as importing the data to your computer, backups and infringement reporting. Pitstop’s tachograph analysis will reveal if you are obeying EU drivers hours regulations and the Work Time Directive (WTD) for mobile workers. You will also need to obtain a digital tachograph Company Card - please see the Links page for details - and of course possess an Operator’s licence and in most cases someone who is a CPC holder.

When in "Lock In" mode, your Company Card is used as a pass to access and download your drivers' activities from the vehicle's VU which also includes their personal information. If the vehicle is rented out or sold, using the Company Card to "Lock Out" prevents third parties from accessing this sensitive data. I.e. it acts as a seal around this information.

When you acquire a new vehicle, the Company card must be used to place the VU into "Lock In" mode. Simply insert the card into either slot 1 or 2 and the working symbol will be displayed along with your company's name. After approximately 3 minutes, depending on the make of the VU, a house symbol will appear and you can press the eject button. The VU will ask you whether you wish to "Lock Out". To this reply "No" as you wish to remain locked in allowing your driver information and activities to be recorded.

In a nutshell "yes". EU Regulation 561/2006 states that Operators must perform a digital tachograph download from their vehicles. Not to carry out a tacho download is breaking the law. Current ruling states that the Vehicle Unit should be downloaded no longer than every 56 days and Driver Cards 28 days. However, we recommend every 7 days as it minimises the amount of data that could be potentially lost should the VU become damaged in any way. From DVSA's point of view, loss of data is equivalent to throwing away your tachograph charts. You can then perform the digital tachograph analysis to produce weekly Driver Infringement and Speeding reports using a digital tachograph application such as Pitstop Flag. Tachograph analysis is essential to running a legal fleet of vehicles.

EU Regulation 561/2006 specifies the driver's rules for the new tachograph laws. These tachograph rules replace the old UK laws but some exemptions are possible to drive out of scope.

The digital tachograph replaces the old analogue tachograph. A digital tacho records vehicle and driver activity electronically and to access this data you must have a digital tachograph download device with appropriate tachograph download software.

A tachograph card, or drivers card, is obtained by applying to DVSA (please see our Links page). A tacho card holds personal and driver activity data. The digital tacho card is a pre-requisite if you drive a vehicle with a digital tachograph. We are often asked how long does it take to get a digi tacho card, this is generally between 3 to 4 weeks.

To make sense of your tachograph data you will need to perform tacho analysis using a digital tachograph application such as Pitstop. There are several digital tachograph software products on the market to perform tacho analysis and we have put together a free comparison report for you that compares feature and prices of the main tachograph software offerings. Tacho software features should be assessed carefully as not all will report on EU Driver rules infringements or working time (WTD) infringements.

Generally speaking about £1000 depending on the vehicle.

If DVSA make an inspection they will access the raw digital data and print their own reports so in a way the question is irrelevant. The reports give you, the Operator, a chance to see if drivers are over speeding or making infringements such as taking the 30 minute break before the 15 minute break during a 4½ hour driving session. Thus, corrective steps can be taken and a note made on the report in anticipation of an inspection. DVSA will not accept the excuse you didn't have the appropriate reporting tacho software so could not detect these infringements.

Additionally the reports show useful working time directive (WTD) information and analysis.

Yes, analogue chart scanning software has now been introduced into our digital tachograph program Pitstop such that your analogue activities will be combined with any digital tachograph data before tachograph analysis takes place. The optional chart scanning software modules are for a flatbed scanner or automatic document feeder (ADF).

A Certificate of Professional Competence is now a legal requirement and an Operator must appoint someone within their company, usually the Transport Manager, or a contracted professional who is a CPC holder. The CPC holder's responsibilities include compliance of the EU regulations to safe guard the company's operators licence.

Digital tachograph double manning, also known as digital tachograph multi-manning or crew, along with train and ferry crossings are taken into consideration by Pitstop during infringement reporting.

This may occur if your old computer crashes and you want to re-install Pitstop Flag or just install it to another computer.

You will need either the original setup program or the latest PitstopXxxxx-setup.exe obtainable from our website, your Licence key and the backed up data files.

If you have not made backups the data may still be on your download device but any manual entries you may have entered on the Drivers, Vehicles and Assets tabs will be lost.

If you still have access to the original computer where Pitstop was run, make a copy of the folder (and sub-folders) C:/RCLTachoData/ and simply copy this to the new computer. Then install Pitstop on the new computer.

If the original computer is not accessible, install Pitstop on the new computer, launch it and using one of the actions under the menu option Data, recover your data from the backup.

If you have been using the Email option on the Manage Data tab then to recover your files you need to rename the file extensions from .TXT to .ZIP, unzip the files to a folder and then import them into C:/RCLTachoData/BackupLocal/. More information can be found in the User Guide, chapter Emailing Your Digital Data Off-Site.