Digital tachograph – how much does it cost to buy and maintain?

You can, but it must be recalibrated and recertified. Not all models can be reprogrammed for a different vehicle.

Under the rules:

• tachograph data – at least every 90 days,
• driver card data – at least every 28 days.

It is not mandatory, but it makes working time settlement much easier and minimises the risk of penalties.

Yes, if you perform international transport – from July 2026, replacing tachographs with second-generation smart devices will be mandatory not only in vehicles with a GVW above 3.5 tonnes, but also in vans.

Operating a digital tachograph turns out to be relatively simple once you know the key rules. Understanding them lets you record the driver's working time correctly and avoid problems in the event of an inspection. Below is a general set of instructions explaining how a digital tachograph is operated.

1. To switch on the tachograph, turn the key to the "ignition on" position.
2. Insert the driver card into the appropriate slot of the device.
3. Wait for the card to log in. The digital tachograph display will show you in turn: a welcome message, local time and UTC time, and the name of the driver card holder.
4. Once the card data has been loaded, the display will show the date and time of the last removal of the card from the tachograph.
5. In the next step the tachograph will offer you the option of making a manual entry – accept it or decline and confirm your decision.
6. Before setting off, you may need to select the country in which you are starting the journey and set the correct activity.
7. When you have finished, end the day on the digital tachograph, remove the driver card and take it with you.

If you want to learn how to operate the digital tachograph and driver card you will be using, consult the manufacturer's manual. There you will find plenty of useful information on matters such as:

• digital tachograph functions,
• digital tachograph settings,
• digital tachograph pictograms and their meaning,
• other important aspects of operating a digital tachograph.

In road transport, country codes, also called country symbols, are used to indicate the countries in which drivers perform transport. Using them, among other things:

• makes it easier to monitor and analyse drivers' activity in different countries,
• allows the type of transport to be identified and standardises the way working time documentation is kept,
• enables enforcement authorities to verify whether the person performing the transport complies with driver working time limits,
• makes it easier to check whether drivers comply with the rules on cabotage and the regulations on international transport,
• allows the obligations under Article 34 of Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 February 2014 on tachographs in road transport to be met,
• enables correct calculation of sector pay and virtual allowances.

Knowing the codes of the countries visited and being able to select them in the tachograph is therefore essential for a professional driver.

There are several situations in which the rules require the appropriate country code to be entered in the tachograph. They include:

• the start of the working day – the driver must select in the tachograph the name or symbol of the country in which work starts, before beginning any work tasks,
• the end of the working day – the driver should indicate the country in which the working day ends, before starting the rest period,
• crossing a national border – a driver crossing a border should stop at the nearest possible safe place and then make an entry indicating the name or symbol of the country they have just entered.

Importantly, a driver using a second-generation smart tachograph and a G2V2 driver card has a much easier job. Why? A second-generation smart tachograph automatically records the moment the border is crossed, so the driver does not have to remember to enter the new country code manually and does not lose time on an additional stop. It should be stressed, however, that the person performing the transport is still obliged to indicate the country in which they start and end work.

Yes, making an entry that indicates, for example, the country where work starts or ends counts as the driver's working time. This activity is treated as one minute of so-called other work. Bear this in mind, because entering the country where the working day ends while the driver is resting interrupts the rest period.

No, domestic drivers must also indicate the country where they start and end work. Only the recording of border crossings does not apply to them.

Under Polish law, if a document presented during an inspection – a record sheet, a tachograph printout or a driver card printout – is missing a manually or automatically entered:

• symbol of the country where the working day started or ended,
• symbol of the country whose border the driver crossed,

then this is a very serious infringement, and for each day subject to inspection the driver may receive a penalty of PLN 100 and the haulier PLN 50. For example, finding five missing country codes on printouts in the period under review will result in a penalty of PLN 500 for the driver and PLN 250 for the transport company.

It is worth adding that the amount of the penalties for infringements relating to country codes in the tachograph may differ depending on the penalty tariff applied in a given country.

Every professional driver using a tachograph should know that each country has its own individual code (symbol). Knowing them allows the recording device to be operated correctly and the obligations to be met properly, including indicating the symbol of the country where the working day starts and ends, and the symbol of the country whose border the driver crossed. Below are a few examples of European country codes that a tachograph user may encounter:

• A – Austria,
• B – Belgium,
• CZ – Czech Republic,
• D – Germany,
• DK – Denmark,
• E – Spain,
• F – France,
• I – Italy,
• NL – Netherlands,
• P – Portugal,
• PL – Poland.

Note the special case of Spain, which requires drivers to enter not only the country code but also the code assigned to the specific region. For example, a driver in Andalusia must enter the region symbol AN in addition to the symbol E for Spain. A driver performing transport in Catalonia, in turn, should select the country code E and the region code CAT.

In older tachographs, the driver had to enter the country code manually after crossing a country's border. Second-generation smart devices relieve holders of the latest G2V2 driver cards of this task. Using the modern GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems), the G2V2 tachograph automatically records the moment the border is crossed and additionally updates the time zone when it changes. As a result, the driver no longer has to stop to set the country code manually in the recording device.

Locking a VDO or any other brand of tachograph with the company card is intended to protect the recorded data from access by unauthorised persons. It is essential and should be remembered especially in the case of a newly purchased vehicle.

If you have long been wondering how to download data from the digital tachograph and driver card without the vehicle having to be physically present at base, you may be interested in the optimisation potential of the remote download of driver cards and tachograph memory feature offered by the Navifleet system. With it, you can automate the data download process and ensure the data is downloaded according to an agreed schedule. Without unnecessary effort, without wasting the fleet manager's and driver's time, and above all without the risk of missing deadlines and the company being fined.

Changing the time on a VDO or Stoneridge digital tachograph is fairly intuitive. You will find step-by-step instructions on how to do it in the article: How to change the time on a tachograph? A practical guide for drivers and payroll staff.