Tachograph and Dashboard Displaying Incorrect Data

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OWNER AND FLEET OPERATORS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hello there,

I work in Driver Compliance at the firm I’m employed at. Recently I’ve been getting a lot of calls from drivers reporting that their dashboard and tachograph is displaying incorrect information. But some report it’s only sometimes and for some it has happened on multiple occasions. Most of our vehicles have Stoneridge SE5000 tachographs but a few have the VDO DTCO 4.0, we’ve had at least 6 different drivers calling up in the last week with the same problem, some have had infringements as a result. I had a call this morning, the driver said his printouts are correct but the tacho head display and dashboard are incorrect. I’m not involved in maintenance really and nor am I a tachograph technician (maybe I ought to train to be one lol) the vehicles go to tacho calibration centers, some have been told there isn’t a problem, I’ve had no conclusive reports on whether the issue is being sorted or not. But at the same time we don’t even know what the issue is. It’s rather concerning yet no one else seems too concerned or to even be looking into it.

Any ideas what may be causing the issue? Ofc It’d be better if we could work out how to avoid it in the first place. Could it be something to do with the tracking system and hardware installed for that? As that also sends through the tacho data remotely.

2

Deycallmethetachoman:
Hello there,

I work in Driver Compliance at the firm I’m employed at. Recently I’ve been getting a lot of calls from drivers reporting that their dashboard and tachograph is displaying incorrect information. But some report it’s only sometimes and for some it has happened on multiple occasions. Most of our vehicles have Stoneridge SE5000 tachographs but a few have the VDO DTCO 4.0, we’ve had at least 6 different drivers calling up in the last week with the same problem, some have had infringements as a result. I had a call this morning, the driver said his printouts are correct but the tacho head display and dashboard are incorrect. I’m not involved in maintenance really and nor am I a tachograph technician (maybe I ought to train to be one lol) the vehicles go to tacho calibration centers, some have been told there isn’t a problem, I’ve had no conclusive reports on whether the issue is being sorted or not. But at the same time we don’t even know what the issue is. It’s rather concerning yet no one else seems too concerned or to even be looking into it.

Any ideas what may be causing the issue? Ofc It’d be better if we could work out how to avoid it in the first place. Could it be something to do with the tracking system and hardware installed for that? As that also sends through the tacho data remotely.

No answer but to ask:

What is being displayed that is apparently incorrect?

One driver says that the print-out and display are different?

3

Franglais:

Deycallmethetachoman:
Hello there,

I work in Driver Compliance at the firm I’m employed at. Recently I’ve been getting a lot of calls from drivers reporting that their dashboard and tachograph is displaying incorrect information. But some report it’s only sometimes and for some it has happened on multiple occasions. Most of our vehicles have Stoneridge SE5000 tachographs but a few have the VDO DTCO 4.0, we’ve had at least 6 different drivers calling up in the last week with the same problem, some have had infringements as a result. I had a call this morning, the driver said his printouts are correct but the tacho head display and dashboard are incorrect. I’m not involved in maintenance really and nor am I a tachograph technician (maybe I ought to train to be one lol) the vehicles go to tacho calibration centers, some have been told there isn’t a problem, I’ve had no conclusive reports on whether the issue is being sorted or not. But at the same time we don’t even know what the issue is. It’s rather concerning yet no one else seems too concerned or to even be looking into it.

Any ideas what may be causing the issue? Ofc It’d be better if we could work out how to avoid it in the first place. Could it be something to do with the tracking system and hardware installed for that? As that also sends through the tacho data remotely.

No answer but to ask:

What is being displayed that is apparently incorrect?

One driver says that the print-out and display are different?

Drive time/time until break, duty time/time until daily rest.

And more than one, just one reported today, so far

4

Are the complaints about both the Stoneridge and the VDO tachographs?

You seem to be talking about what VDO refer to as the “VDO Counter” and a quick look at the Stoneridge manual suggests that they call it “DDS” (Driver Decision Support), on both types of tachograph this is the additional information provided by tachographs that is not legally required for the tachograph specifications that tachographs must comply with.

Presumably your drivers are doing manual entries at the start of each shift and not imagining that the tachograph can magically know what’s not entered onto the driver card :bulb: :stuck_out_tongue:

It seems that on Stoneridge tachographs this can be switched off by the driver but I don’t know if the same applies to VDO tachographs.

You can read more about this on:

Page 20 - Stoneridge SE5000 user manual
Page 28 to switch it off.

Page 74 - VDO DTCO 4.0 user manual

5

tachograph:
Are the complaints about both the Stoneridge and the VDO tachographs?

You seem to be talking about what VDO refer to as the “VDO Counter” and a quick look at the Stoneridge manual suggests that they call it “DDS” (Driver Decision Support), on both types of tachograph this is the additional information provided by tachographs that is not legally required for the tachograph specifications that tachographs must comply with.

Presumably your drivers are doing manual entries at the start of each shift and not imagining that the tachograph can magically know what’s not entered onto the driver card :bulb: :stuck_out_tongue:

It seems that on Stoneridge tachographs this can be switched off by the driver but I don’t know if the same applies to VDO tachographs.

You can read more about this on:

Page 20 - Stoneridge SE5000 user manual
Page 28 to switch it off.

Page 74 - VDO DTCO 4.0 user manual

As most are Stoneridge Tachos I’m going to say it is definitely happening with them, I can’t be certain if it is VDO ones too.

Most drivers leave their cards in overnight I believe. I did have a call from a driver who had left it on other work overnight so of course his countdowns were messed up all day which is annoying but expected. Then another driver called to say his tacho wasn’t working, I don’t know if it was just the display or what. Maintenance told him to unplug it and plug it back in and told him it’s an issue with the tracking system equipment interfering with it. Yet no one actually knows if that is the case for sure. He called me after and said it’s on now but is saying he has no drive time left. He had another 4 hours, but looking at the tachograph chart on our tracking system he’s an hour and a half over his 4:30 and had 18 minutes break when he called me, clearly he’s not very good at keeping track of time :neutral_face: This particular driver has also been having problems with his tacho since November and has had it looked at on several occasions with seemingly no resolve.

A while back one of our vehicle went in to have the tacho looked at and they said it was the tracking system (which is where everyone here got that idea from), they unplugged our tracking system equipment and I’m assuming the tacho worked okay, but of course our company were not happy about the tracking equipment being unplugged.

So there is a bit of a predicament. like 95% of vehicles are working fine which tells, me when setup correctly the tracking equipment and tacho work fine together, so it may be the case that maintenance have to spend some time figuring out the issue with the other 5%. Alternatively, those drivers have to get better at time keeping lol

6

It happens to the best of us leaving a card in overnight on other work and then getting repeated warnings the next day until completion of a daily rest period.

Maybe I’m suspicious by nature but have you ruled out that some of the drivers may attempting to be a bit “creative” and are ballsing it up?

7

I work in a Main dealership ,and the amount of issues we have with aftermarket tracking systems and where they take their feeds from is a big problem…We had one vehicle where the PTO would try to randomly engage whilst tey where driving it …Of course we got all the abuse as it was a new truck and we struggled to get it to fault never mind fix it ,But when we did solve it and report what it was ,did they apologise did they hell …

But it may well be the tracking systems ,why not disconnect the tracker on one of the problem vehicles for a week or so and see if it behaves…If it does you know the issue …I know you mentioned they don’t like them being disconnected ,but it is the logical way to go

8

norb:
But it may well be the tracking systems ,why not disconnect the tracker on one of the problem vehicles for a week or so and see if it behaves…If it does you know the issue …I know you mentioned they don’t like them being disconnected ,but it is the logical way to go

Seems the most logical step to take before exploring other avenues.

9

norb:
I work in a Main dealership ,and the amount of issues we have with aftermarket tracking systems and where they take their feeds from is a big problem…We had one vehicle where the PTO would try to randomly engage whilst tey where driving it …Of course we got all the abuse as it was a new truck and we struggled to get it to fault never mind fix it ,But when we did solve it and report what it was ,did they apologise did they hell …

But it may well be the tracking systems ,why not disconnect the tracker on one of the problem vehicles for a week or so and see if it behaves…If it does you know the issue …I know you mentioned they don’t like them being disconnected ,but it is the logical way to go

Sorry for taking so long to respond, but yes indeed people like to point the finger, really annoys me, I prefer to methodically look at the situation and actually work out what’s going wrong before playing the blame game.

I just recently completed my apprenticeship, needless to say, I have little say as to what happens with the maintenance and technical side of the trucks. I mentioned the vehicle dealership said it was the tracking system causing the issues and they disconnected it. Well apparently it can’t be disconnected for insurance reasons so our insurance manager was very annoyed with them. Apparently it fixed the issue at least for a while. So I don’t really know how to test it. I’ll speak to the guys at one of our garages today as they fit the tracking and dashcam hardware. Tbh i’m sick of hearing it from drivers (not having a go at the drivers btw, but the managers who won’t let us try and find a solution), the same ■■■■ problem every time but I cant do anything about it.