Hi
I don’t have an O license yet, am in middle of getting a restricted one, so please go easy on me!
I am trying to mop up an incredibly messy and barely believable situation and don’t feel I can post the whole story, but I will later. All I can say is that before being asked to manage a project I was fighting for everything being done by the book, and was ignored. Now I finally have a say there is a real mess of impressive proportions to sort out.
I’ve managed to inherit a UK registered truck being laid up in Italy with no tachograph fitted that shouldn’t have even left the UK until an O license was in place. I have found somewhere to fit a tacho locally in Italy. If they do this they will seal and calibrate it with full paperwork and sticker. As truck was first registered in 1989 my understanding of the rules is that an analogue can be retro-fitted (as pre 1996). The people the other end are arguing (maybe rightly) about this and there will be a showdown tomorrow in some official Italien transport office to resolve this.
What I am wondering is whether I should bother continuing the fight for analogue. It just seemed simpler for a small operator. So finally, my question: From an operators perspective, how much extra work, equipment, software etc. is required should I give up and get a digital fitted? Roughly how much will I have to shell out for equipment to do the downloads? Is it just a laptop, some software and a bit of magic string?
If I understand it right drivers cards need downloading every 28 days max and a download is needed from the vehicle unit itself every 56 days max. That in itself doesn’t seem so bad. Thanks for any thoughts particularly concerning cost of equipment to download cards.
BTW now I’m in charge the vehicle will only be moved once tacho is fitted on a mix of trade plates and trailered directly back home then laid up until O license is gained.
Thanking you!
from an operators POV, digi every day, simple storage of the data, whereas, with analogue, you have to store the tacho cards for either 12 months or 24 months depending on how you monitor the WTD
if you take in to account the cost of buying the tacho discs over the cost of buying the downloading devices, it will be cheaper in the long run to get the digi download stuff
you can buy the download equipment and software for around £250, once you have it, it is there, no need to keep replacing it like you will with tacho discs
paper rolls for the digi head unit are not cheap, but instruct the driver(s) not to do a printout unless absolutely necessary 
Thanks for the information, I have now found the starter kits online for the sort of cash you were mentioning.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings. I’d imagine that if they can’t fit analogue the quote will shoot up…!
Tim
Digi tachos are about £550 dunno about analogue.
Be sure to get second generation if you go digi, it wont steal so much time.
This may sound harsh but is it worth saving the truck? You say its 1989, 24 years old? Unless its something special I’d get a local scrap man to go round and get it, job done and then source a vehicle in the uk.
mucker85:
This may sound harsh but is it worth saving the truck? You say its 1989, 24 years old? Unless its something special I’d get a local scrap man to go round and get it, job done and then source a vehicle in the uk.
Not harsh - entirely reasonable question! It’s a restored Scania 82m with under 40,000 k’s on it. Does that count as special?!
Early on I made the point that there are no 2 series on the roads, parts are hard to find and incredibly expensive and the age is a real concern. At that point others were so enthusiastic about it that my view didn’t count.
A few months on, for reasons that defy logic I have ended up rather liking it. It has also been scarily reliable given it’s age. Compared to some modern trucks it’s nice to drive too. Too much recent effort (by others) has been put into it to drop it at this stage so I feel compelled to get it road legal and get it back home.
In a year or two I will either be totally smitten and need to keep it running at all costs or sick to death of old-age mechanical problems and aligned with your original thought!
Are you using the vehicle commercially or privately?
mucker85:
Are you using the vehicle commercially or privately?
Privately. The short story is that it’s jointly owned by four different non-profit organisations, and each of the four gets a time allocation of use per year. All pitch in to a fund for running costs. It’s kitted out as a motorhome and event truck in the back (disco, sound system etc.) and has a double cab for getting the team to their event. The box could go on another chassis if the beast expires but it shows no signs of doing so.
There is now agreement that there needs to be ONE organisation responsible for operating it legally and safely, and a new trust will be setup once it is back and SORNd and the trustees will hold the O license. Did that make sense!?
BTW analogue tacho got fitted yesterday so I can defer worrying about digital equipment for another couple of years. Thanks for the information though, I learned a lot!
Good luck getting it back, enjoy the drive.
Yes, need to organise. In meantime…
Here is one I took on my phone at Tebay today…
facebook.com/photo.php?fbid … decbbef7ec
(Bloke in photo isn’t me!)
Here is the general photo album, needs updating a bit…
facebook.com/tim.howard.560 … 239&type=3
That’s a nice size camper
My only dislike is the diff. Hope to eventually stick a coach diff on. At moment in top gear (5th) it does about 2300 rpm when doing 90kph which is a bit on the high side, it’s into the orange. But otherwise I fear I’m getting a bit attached to it.