hi,
if im tramping all week from monday to friday, can i leave my digi tacho card in the tacho machine for all of the week ? or do i have to take it out at the end of every days driving ? ive never used one in anger yet so i know sod all about them.
Hello Squannogs,
This is a bit long, but I hope it helps. It is taken from the VOSA website dig tacho pdf download.
Available here: Drivers Hours & Tacho Rules
Digital Tachographs
Digital tachographs contain their own internal memory which records vehicle
movements even when no card is inserted into the tachograph. It is a very serious
breach of the EC drivers’ hours rules to drive without a card unless, exceptionally,
the relevant driver card is lost, stolen, damaged or malfunctioning.
When driving a vehicle equipped with a digital tachograph, drivers should:
- ensure that their card is inserted into the correct slot, and that it is ready for
use, before moving the vehicle - record the country in which they begin and end their daily work period
- ensure all duties conducted since the driver smart card was last removed from
a tachograph are manually entered onto the card record using the manual
entry facility on the tachograph - ensure that the tachograph is working properly, and
- ensure that through the working period the mode switch is used correctly to
record other work, periods of availability and rest/breaks.
Note in particular that digital tachographs will default to recording ‘other work’ when
the vehicle stops and drivers must use the mode switch correctly to ensure that rest
and break periods and recorded correctly.
If, for any reason, the tachograph does not make an accurate record of your
activities (e.g. you inadvertently make and confirm an incorrect manual entry in a
digital tachograph) we strongly recommend that you make and sign a printout for
the relevant period, with a note giving details of the error and the reason for it, at
the time the error is made.
32 HOW SHOULD OTHER WORK, AVAILABILITY AND REST BE RECORDED
WHEN AWAY FROM THE VEHICLE?
A driver smart card or an analogue tachograph chart completed by a driver should
not be left in a tachograph if it is likely that another driver may have access to the
vehicle or could drive it with the smart card or chart still inserted.
When using a vehicle fitted with a digital tachograph the driver smart card should
remain in the tachograph, with the mode switch set to the appropriate activity, whilst
the vehicle remains in the care of the driver. However, as it is not possible to correct
the digital record retrospectively, if a driver is likely to change work or rest modes
when away from the vehicle, the driver is advised to remove their driver card when
they leave the vehicle.
If the driver has to remove their driver card during the working day a manual entry
must be made when the driver next uses the vehicle or another vehicle equipped
with a digital tachograph. This allows the driver to account for all periods of time
during their daily work periods which could not be recorded directly onto the driver
card by virtue of the card not being in the recording equipment when these activities
were undertaken. In other words, drivers must still account for the period(s) of time
— within their working day — between the last card withdrawal and the current card
insertion.
Please note that digital tachographs calculate entries based on UTC time which
corresponds to GMT time. This will not necessarily be the same as the displayed
time which may be altered in half-hour steps to reflect local time or adjusted to
show summer time (daylight saving time).
As you’re out tramping all week, leave your card in all week.
Don’t forget to close it down at the end of each day, by putting in your “end country” and changing mode to bed.
If your tramping around the UK that’s dead easy, the machine keeps the last 3 countries entered in at the beginning of its memory. If your doing UK tramping, that is the initial option, because UK was the option you chose for “begin country” when you put your card in and was the option you chose for “end country” when you closed down at the end of your last day.
I do Euro tramping, So I can start in one country, finish in another country. I might finish on a ferry, so start the next day in yet another country. Pressing those blasted buttons for 10 minutes, to scroll through doesn’t half make your shoulder ache 
.(My digi-tacho is mounted above the windscreen).
To insert or remove your card the ignition has to be on. The same to get a print-out or to input things like begin or end country etc. You can change mode with the ignition off though, but it can be difficult to read the display. The back-lighting only comes on when your ignition is switched on.
If you get caught out and go over your time, take a printout and write your excuse on it, exactly the same as you would do with a tacho-disc. A printout taken for this sort of reason have to be carried by you for 3 weeks and then kept on file in the office for (I think) 2 years, the same as tacho-discs have to be stored.
printouts (when required) and charts only have to be kept in the office for 12 months after they were made. UNLESS, they are being used as records for RTD, in which case they must be kept for 2 years.
If you are unavoidably delayed and run over the 4.5, 9 or 10 hour driving you must only continue to the nearest suitable parking (not always the next services area). You must make the record on the printout / tacho chart as soon as you get to the parking area. To comply with this you would be allowed to remove the chart from the head for a few moments to write the reason for the departure from the driving limits on the reverse of the chart. Obviously this doesn’t apply to digital tachos, just make the printout and write the reason on it.