Types and latest generation driver cards (G2V2)
Are you familiar with the different types of digital tachograph cards?
This guide should decode the mystery and provide a comprehensive explanation.
Tachograph cards are essential to ensure road safety and compliance for drivers of heavy vehicles.
Fasten your seatbelt and join us as we dive into the world of digital tachograph cards
- what they are, how they are used and why they are important.
Digital tachograph card: What is it?
A digital tachograph card is a "smart" card that records and stores important information about the driver's activities, vehicle speed and other data. The card is inserted into the tachograph and serves as personal identification for drivers, companies, workshops and enforcement authorities. Each type of digital tachograph card serves a specific purpose in the overall management of tachograph data.
Tachograph cards - what are they used for?
Tachograph cards play a crucial role in ensuring accurate recording and monitoring of driver activities and promoting safety on our roads.
Understanding their functions is essential for both drivers and industry stakeholders to navigate the complex network of regulations that govern transportation operations.
In a commercial vehicle, a digital tachograph card is inserted into the tachograph by either a driver, workshop staff or control authorities. During summonses from the Danish Transport Authority and company inspections by the police, the collected data is used for compliance checks of driving and rest time regulations, as well as on the road for accident investigations.
The digital tachograph records vehicle speed, distance, and driver activity among other data.
Types of tachograph cards
There are four types of tachograph cards:
Driver card
The driver card is a personal microchip card, always carried by the driver and contains details such as driving time, breaks, rest periods and violations of the Driving and Rest Period Rules and Working Time Directive. It should not be confused with a driving license as it serves a completely different purpose. Typically, a driver card is valid for 5 years. This card must be inserted into the tachograph every time the vehicle is driven.
If you want to read how to renew your driver card in Denmark, click here.
Company card
The company card is a microchip card issued to transportation companies and is used to lock in data before the use of a new vehicle/tachograph. The company card acts as the key to tachograph data. This card cannot be used as a replacement for a driver card. All companies that have vehicles with a tachograph must obtain a company card.
To order a company card in Denmark, click here.
Workshop card
The workshop card allows authorized personnel at certified workshops to perform maintenance on the digital tachograph display system by calibrating or downloading stored data. Only authorized workshops can install, activate, calibrate, check and download digital tachographs. It is the only card issued with a personal PIN code and is only valid for one year.
To order a workshop card in Denmark, click here.
Control card
The control card is used by authorities, such as the police and the Danish Road Safety Agency, to perform inspections and ensure compliance with tachograph regulations, driving and rest time regulations and the Working Time Directive. This card gives the police and the Danish Road Safety Agency unlimited access to the tachograph data, even if the company has put a "lock" on their company card.
What about the new smart tachograph (G2V2) driver cards?
Since August 21, 2023, all newly registered vehicles have been equipped with the new intelligent tachograph (G2V2).
Due to the limited availability of the latest smart tachographs, the European Commission has allowed EU member states to give operators until August 18, 2025 to replace their heavy vehicles registered between August 21, 2023 and December 31, 2023 with SMT2 devices.
In the following years, the older tachographs will be replaced with the new smart tachographs (G2V2).
Currently, there are two generations of driver cards in circulation - Generation 1 (G1), which was distributed before June 2019 and does not record location data and Generation 2 (G2V1), issued since June 2019, which has allocated storage space for location data but not for reading/unreading operation data.
The new driver card (G2V2) will also be issued together with the intelligent tachograph (G2V2). The old driver card will still work correctly with the new tachograph and the new card will also work with older generations of tachographs. This means that replacing the current driver cards is not a mandatory requirement and the tachographs do not need to be replaced immediately.
What's new about G2V2 driver cards?
The new driver cards contain data on loading and unloading information, information on automatic border crossing and extended memory for data.
The latest G2V2 driver cards have doubled storage capacity from 28 days to 56 days.
At the same time, from the end of 2024, authorities across the EU will be able to carry out 56 days of roadside checks, instead of 28 days today.
In principle, this allows twice as many activities within the same download period and the data will be intact. However, the appearance of the cards is identical to the previous generation (G2V1).
As you may have experienced with the previous generation cards, there is a risk of the data from the first few days being overwritten if the driver has a lot of activities, even if the data is downloaded according to the rules. The expanded memory on the new driver card will prevent this problem and with the increased scrutiny from authorities and police across Europe, drivers will be protected from losing data that has already been read correctly.
Read more about the new smart tachographs and which features will not be available initially here.