Driver & Company Tacho Cards

Tachograph cards are a credit card sized plastic card that contain a microchip. There are several different types of tachograph cards - depending on what work you do in road haulage business you may need a different type of card.

Tachograph driver card

Tachograph driver cards are required by law for bus and truck drivers.

Apply for a tachograph driver card

Visit the RSA website to apply now for a tachograph driver card or read on to find out more about the digital tachograph driver card.

About the tachograph driver card

The personal tachograph driver card is a credit card-sized plastic card that contains a microchip. The card can store all relevant driver data required for EU Drivers’ Hours regulations including break and rest times.

Important details

Your driver card:

Is unique to the individual driver and valid for five years,
Can store information for 28 days,
Can only be used by its owner, ie. the driver authorised to use it,
May be suspended or withdrawn by an enforcement officer if the card has been falsified, if the person using the card is not the legal holder of the card, or if the card has been obtained by false declaration or forged documents,
Must be made available to enforcement officers on request.

How to use your tachograph driver card

Before a journey begins e.g. when loading/unloading or driving) you must insert your driver card into the appropriate slot in the tachograph unit.

Where a vehicle is double-manned, both driver and co-driver slots are used.

Similar to an analogue tachograph, a digital tachograph will record your activities such as driving, other work, breaks and rest.

When you are doing manual entry of data into the tachograph you will be asked (via the units menu) if you have driven any other vehicle that day and must select whether it was by digital or analogue-recorded method.

If you are driving a vehicle fitted with an analogue tachograph you should have a chart to record your activities.

Downloading data

Data must be downloaded from the driver card every 21 days. A transport undertaking shall ensure that the data from their drivers’ tachograph card is downloaded every 21 days. A self employed driver must download the data from their tachograph card every 21 days. The data must be retained for inspection by enforcement officers for a period of at least 12 months.

Agency drivers

In you work for more than one company, you need to download data every 21 days from the driver card and retain it for inspection.

Tachograph Company card

If you own a passenger or haulage company a company tachograph card enables the downloading of digital data from your vehicle units.

Apply for a tachograph company card

Visit the RSA website to Apply now for a tachograph company card or read on to find out more about the company card.

About the digital tachograph company card

A company card allows you to access the data stored in the digital tachograph. You will also need it to protect your data in the vehicle unit (VU) if you hire in or sell a vehicle.

The company card enables you to download data in order to comply with legal requirements for data storage.

A company card does not store any data as such - its function is simply to ensure that the digital tachograph vehicle unit recognises the operator before allowing data to be downloaded.

Downloading data

To download data from the vehicle unit (VU) you will need a download device ( a memory stick which you can insert into the VU) and a company card ( this is to unlock the data).

A company card cannot be used for driving

Locking-in data

The company card should be used to lock-in data before you start using the vehicle in order to protect data that will be subsequently recorded on your vehicles tachograph.

It is not possible to protect data retrospectively and any unprotected data will be open to all to download.

Using a company card correctly will prevent unauthorised access to data and ensure that you comply with Data Protection law. It will also ensure that competitors do not get access to your data on the tachograph.