With the clocks going forward by one hour from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) to British Summer Time (BST) next Sunday 25 March, the Freight Transport Association reminds lorry operators and drivers that vehicles fitted with digital tachographs are required to record manual entries in Universal Time Co-ordinated (UTC) - regardless of what time the unit display is set to. And UTC - the international aviation and maritime standard time setting - accords with GMT and is therefore one hour behind BST. Lorry drivers are therefore obliged to work in a time zone different from the rest of the UK population.
This means that lorry drivers carrying out work away from the vehicle, for example between 06.00 and 08.00 hours BST, must record the work into the digital tachograph as work carried out between 05.00 and 07.00 hours UTC.
Digital tachographs are fitted to all UK lorries registered after 1 May 2006, together with a number of retro-fitted vehicles. There are now over 36,000 vehicles fitted with digital tachographs operating in the UK; some 215,000 drivers have now obtained driver's cards enabling them to drive vehicles fitted with the units.
FTA offers a wide range of digital tachograph solutions to help vehicle operators manage a smooth transition from analogue to digital. FTA's product range is designed to meet individual operators' needs; as such FTA offers both an on-site and bureau analysis range plus extensive training and product solutions. To find out more, operators can call FTA's dedicated digital tachograph line on 08700 11 57 15 or visit www.fta.co.uk/digitalsolutions