If your vehicles fall under the assimilated EU drivers’ hours rules, a tachograph records driving, other work, breaks and rest. The legal duties sit with both the driver and the operator, and DVSA expects to see a working system, not just the hardware.
Every driver needs their own digital tachograph card, used in slot 1 (slot 2 for the second driver on multi-manned work). Driving without a card when one is required is an offence. A lost, stolen, damaged or malfunctioning card has a limited emergency procedure: report it, arrange replacement and make the required start- and end-of-day printouts. A forgotten card is not an exception; the driver cannot simply use handwritten records because they left it at home.
Your company card locks the vehicle unit so others cannot access your data, and lets you download the vehicle unit’s records. Guard it: a shared or misused company card is a common inquiry topic.
These are maximum regular intervals, not a safe promise that data will last exactly that long. Download sooner when activity is heavy or data may be lost.
Keep tachograph data for at least 12 months for drivers’ hours purposes, and at least 2 years for working time. Many operators keep both for 2 years to stay simple.
Downloading is not compliance. DVSA and the Traffic Commissioner expect operators to analyse the data, act on infringements, and keep a record of what they did. A signed infringement report filed per driver is the classic evidence at a roadside stop or audit.
Vehicle weight, journey type and exemptions decide whether the assimilated or AETR drivers’ hours rules require a tachograph. A digital or smart tachograph stores activity on both the vehicle unit and the driver’s card. Older analogue equipment uses charts. For international work, smart tachograph 2 retrofit deadlines have already passed for older equipment covered by the rules. From July 2026, qualifying light goods vehicles over 2.5 tonnes used for international hire-or-reward journeys also came into the smart-2 requirement, subject to exclusions. Do not apply a blanket “all vans need one” or “only trucks over 3.5 tonnes need one” rule; check DVSA’s fitment guidance for the specific vehicle and journey.
The equipment is a legal record, not merely a fleet-management accessory. An installer or approved tachograph centre must calibrate and seal it properly. Operators should know when each unit’s inspection and calibration is due, and a driver should check that the vehicle has valid equipment before setting off. If a unit breaks mid-journey, there are repair and manual-record procedures; starting international work with known faulty equipment is a poor risk even where a limited domestic exception might exist.
The tachograph records driving, other work, availability and break/rest modes. A vehicle that has stopped is not proof its driver took a break. Loading, checking tyres and securing a load are other work. Waiting with a known duration may be availability; an uncertain queue or a bay where the driver must work may not be. Drivers must set the correct mode and manually enter work and rest that occurred away from the vehicle when required.
The important habit is to review the entire working period rather than just driving blocks. A pre-trip walkaround check is work; so are post-trip paperwork and defect reporting. An operator whose records show implausibly long rest periods while trucks are being loaded should investigate, not accept the display. Train drivers on the controls of the actual tachograph models in the fleet and sample-check the data afterwards.
A driver’s card is personal. On a double-manned journey the driver uses slot 1 and the co-driver uses slot 2, changing slots when roles change. One driver must never use another person’s card. A driver who has never been issued a card cannot legally drive a digital-tachograph vehicle on an in-scope journey.
A company card lets the operator lock and retrieve its vehicle-unit data. Keep it secure, register the vehicles correctly and decide who is authorised to download files. A shared login to analysis software is not a substitute for a controlled company card and a defined process when vehicles join or leave the fleet.
If a driver card is genuinely lost, stolen, damaged or malfunctioning, the DVSA guidance allows driving without it for up to 15 calendar days in specified circumstances, or longer where necessary to return the vehicle to its premises. The driver must make and mark the required printouts at the start and end of each day’s use, and take extra printouts when changing vehicles. This exception does not cover a card forgotten at home. Organise replacement promptly and keep the printouts with the operator’s records.
The regular maximum download interval is 28 days for driver cards and 90 days for vehicle units. Use a calendar that flags due dates, and bring a download forward before a driver leaves, before the operator loses control of a vehicle, if a card fails or if older data may soon be overwritten. The statutory document says to download as often as necessary to avoid data loss; a very active card may hold less than the average 28 days of detailed data.
Store the raw downloads with a reliable backup, readable by your analysis software. Assign one person to verify every vehicle and active driver appears in the data. Missing vehicle-unit files, unknown-driver periods or a driver who has never submitted their card should trigger a question, not just a blank box in the monthly report.
The operator must make regular checks of charts, manual records and digital data for hours compliance. A useful process records the infringement, asks the driver what happened, decides whether the schedule or behaviour needs changing, and checks whether the fix worked on the next download. Repeated infringements on the same route point to an unrealistic plan as often as an individual problem. Keep an audit trail of the action taken.
For drivers’ hours enforcement, operators need to produce records for 12 months. Working-time records must be retained for two years after the period concerned. Keeping the relevant digital data and analysis for two years can simplify retrieval, but it does not replace longer retention where another legal or contractual obligation applies. An international driver travelling to or from the EU must be able to produce 56 days of records at the roadside; the domestic/AETR production period in DVSA guidance is usually the current day plus the previous 28 calendar days. The driver should know which journey they are on and what they can produce.
A tachograph system works when the driver records accurately, the operator downloads reliably, the transport manager reviews exceptions and dispatchers adjust routes before the same breach repeats. Write down each responsibility. If a driver changes vehicles, a card breaks, an agency driver leaves or a unit is replaced, the written process should tell staff what to download and where to file it. That is more defensible than discovering at an inquiry that the data existed somewhere but nobody looked at it.
The detail changes by vehicle, journey and device type. Use DVSA’s tachograph chapter for the operative rules, especially on failures, international journeys and cards.