Im working for an agency & will be driving artic with digital tacho from tuesday. I have never used a digi card before & wondered if they are easy to use. Also i’ll be doing my first ever night out & was wondering when i park up for the night do i just end my day shift as usual & take the digi card out & then insert it when i start work the next day. Any advice from you more experienced truckers would be most grateful, many thanks in advance.
Yep, aside from the little menus (you can get a manual for the VDO/siemens one from the tacho forum) it works while you’re working just the same as any tray tacho. You pop the card in (chip upwards for the VDO ones, in the little tray for the other ones) enter your start country, and any manual entries for pretrips and the like, and off you go. Eject it overnight (with the engine on usually, or it won’t work) and you’ll be fine. Go for a printout, especially if you’re on agency.
Make sure there’s a spare printout roll in the cab somewhere, VOSA have been known to check for those.
I’m probably not the best to offer advice as i’ve only used mine a few times while i was on agency about a year ago, but seeing as no-one else has replied i’ll tell you the bit i know. You put the card in upside down i.e with your photo pointing down and the arrow pointing inwards. As it’s the cards 1st use it may say ‘error’ on the display. This happened to me and i don’t remember what i did! 
I think i pressed ‘ok’, ejected the card and tried again, and it worked. Just follow the instuctions on the screen. It’ll ask you your starting country, just scroll down to UK and press ‘ok’. After that i don’t remember sorry. There’s a friend of mine who does European work and he leaves his card in all the time. Just switches to ‘rest’ mode when he’s taking his 11 hours.
Not much i know, but i hope it helps.
allikat:
Yep, aside from the little menus (you can get a manual for the VDO/siemens one from the tacho forum) it works while you’re working just the same as any tray tacho. You pop the card in (chip upwards for the VDO ones, in the little tray for the other ones) enter your start country, and any manual entries for pretrips and the like, and off you go. Eject it overnight (with the engine on usually, or it won’t work) and you’ll be fine. Go for a printout, especially if you’re on agency.
Make sure there’s a spare printout roll in the cab somewhere, VOSA have been known to check for those.
See? What do i know?
You weren’t far off mate, and you put in some info I missed.
So don’t feel too bad about it. If you do leave it in all week on tramping, then I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to put an entry in (via the driver entries section in the menus) to mark the end of shift and what country it is in, and do similar in the morning to mark the beginning of shift.
I’m ejecting mine for overnight and weekend breaks now, as it started complaining about card errors. Printouts are optional, but highly recommended if you are on agency, or made mistakes on hours or the like.
Evening Folks,
I was told that when using a digi tacho card, you insert it into the slot as soon as you get int the cab, set it up and your card is to remain in the slot until you finish driving in that vehicle. ? 
Is this correct?
Regards Smokinbarrels 
That is correct smoking barrels, but overnights and weekends parked up are optional. If you park up for one or more nights, you can eject it or not as you please.
But due to some utter daftness, you still have to swap cards over if you swap drivers while double manned… 
So am i right in thinking i can end my daily shift & eject digi card & when i wake up & am ready to start work again i insert card as usual to start shift. Sorry for soundig dumb but ive not had digi card experience & have never done a night out. Doing 2 nights out this coming week.
P.s thanks for the replies guys
just to add this to the mix i never used mine but if i were too and i were doing european would i have to leave it in like i would a disc to show rest or does it not work like that
tyler4164:
So am i right in thinking i can end my daily shift & eject digi card & when i wake up & am ready to start work again i insert card as usual to start shift. Sorry for soundig dumb but ive not had digi card experience & have never done a night out. Doing 2 nights out this coming week.P.s thanks for the replies guys
Spot on mate. The tacho will make a note of any movements of the vehicle with no card in, so don’t. The other advantage of ejecting it every night is the reminder of the last ejection time when you put your card in (shown in GMT no matter what the display is set to), I like it, it helps me double check my maths for time off.
tyler4164:
So am i right in thinking i can end my daily shift & eject digi card & when i wake up & am ready to start work again i insert card as usual to start shift.
From what i can gather mate yes.
have never done a night out. Doing 2 nights out this coming week.
Heheh, this is where the bug bites. Either that or you’ll be crying ‘Never again’
Carl:
just to add this to the mix i never used mine but if i were too and i were doing european would i have to leave it in like i would a disc to show rest or does it not work like that
It CAN work like that, but after a week or so it likes to be ejected. Or at least mine did. You should run through the menus to log an “end country” when you park up, and the same for “start country” when you begin. Unless that was what screwed it all up for me?? sheesh, it’s so hard to get these darned things right… and thus speaketh a former IT technician!!!
So from the minute i eject the card i have to have 11 hours rest between daily shifts■■?. Having always finished shift at end of day & returned home ive never really had to worry about daily rest as ive had plenty of time between shifts. Thanks for all your replies
You should run through the menus to log an “end country” when you park up, and the same for “start country” when you begin. Unless
now theres another thing id forgotten about changing countries
allikat:
and thus speaketh a former IT technician!!!
My god, i’ve got no hope then. I’m struggling to work this computer.
See above post.
tyler4164:
So from the minute i eject the card i have to have 11 hours rest between daily shifts■■?. Having always finished shift at end of day & returned home ive never really had to worry about daily rest as ive had plenty of time between shifts. Thanks for all your replies
you can have a nine hours daily rest if you want? handy if you are away and want to get home earlier!
as long as you only have three a week (i think its three but someone will confirm or shoot me!) 
It’s 3x9 hour rests, and 2x10 hour drives you can have each working week. At least it was last I looked.
Sorry if this is wrong but obviously we dont do night’s out, but i thought drivers who have the same truck everyday and do night’s out would:
Insert card at start of shift and obviously do all your bitz n bobz but at end of shift (start of night out) just change mode to REST for 11 hours or 9 whatever and then in the morning (after night out) just change mode to
CROSSED HAMMERS while your doing your walk round and then start your day’s driving.
Also if you completed 5 or 6 shifts as above and got weekended somewhere would’nt you just change mode to REST for 45 hours or 24 you get my drift
So what i’m basically saying is the only reason to take card out is for:
1-change of vehicle
2-ministry check
3-download card
is what i’ve just written a load of [zb] or what? 
see now thats how it were explained to me chris and to be honest makes sense especially when your across the water.who knows
Coffee would know