The European Commission published a revision of the tachograph legislation in which it wants to make fraud more difficult and reduce the administrative burden. In addition, in the proposal the Commission also wants to make full use of new technological opportunities such as satellite positioning. With the new measures, the Commission intends to expect to save companies €515 million per year.

The proposal from the European Commission of revision for the tachographs legislation will allow Member States to grant exceptions from the obligation to use tachographs for certain users within a uniformly extended radius, as for example craftsmen (reduction of administrative burden of €52.8 million per year). The present proposal aims to update the legal framework which dates back to 1985, because the digital tachograph was made mandatory for new vehicles in 2006 and new rules for such sort of tachograph were already proposed in 2009. The proposal's main aim is to enable the control of compliance of professional drivers and transport undertakings with the social road transport legislation.

With the new proposal, location recording by satellite positioning system will allow replacing manual recording by automated ones. It will save €349 million per year for road transport undertakings and their drivers. Moreover, a specific interface will allow an integration into intelligent transport systems, while respecting the applicable legislation on data protection.

Among the novelties, higher standards for workshops entrusted to install and calibrate the tachograph will reduce fraud and manipulation. In addition, the Commission proposes to merge the driving licence with the driver card to be used with the digital tachograph. This will reduce the administrative burden on drivers by €100 million per year. It will also reduce fraudulent use of driver cards. Also, there is a proposal for a continuous update of the tachograph specifications in order to ensure that a high level of security is maintained and that opportunities for fraud and manipulation are reduced.

The legislative proposal is accompanied by a Communication from the Commission which explains how security will be maintained over time, how the Commission intends to use standards set by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) for certain parts of the tachograph equipment, and how the Commission intends to cooperate with third countries at the level of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).