Blog / Tachograph rules

HGV tachograph rules

Last reviewed: 20 September 2026 · Using the recording equipment under assimilated and AETR rules · Originally published 10 April 2025

If you are in scope of assimilated or AETR drivers’ hours rules, an approved tachograph must record driving, breaks, rest, other work and periods of availability. The record is the legal trace. An app is not.

This page is the driver-facing use manual: card in, modes, manual entries, faults, and what you must be able to produce. Which rulebook applies, and whether that look-back is 28 or 56 days, is on a separate page.

This is guidance, not legal advice

Limits below follow current GOV.UK goods-vehicle guidance. Exemptions, passenger operations and other countries’ enforcement can change what you must do. Check the official sources at the end.

What must be recorded

The tachograph records driving time, breaks and rest, other work, periods of availability, speed and distance. Those records are how compliance with the hours rules is checked. The only GOV.UK exception noted for goods work is a vehicle collecting sea coal — still in scope of the hours rules, but no tachograph required.

Types and fitting

GOV.UK lists four types: analogue; digital (vehicles registered from 1 May 2006); smart 1 (from 15 June 2019); and smart 2 (various later dates).

A full or transitional smart 2 must be fitted in newly registered in-scope vehicles from 21 February 2024.
From 24 December 2025, newly registered goods vehicles must have a full smart 2.
From 1 July 2026, a full smart 2 must be fitted in goods vehicles over 2.5 tonnes used for international hire-or-reward journeys (own-account work where driving is not the driver’s main activity is treated differently).
A vehicle used only in the UK may keep the analogue or digital unit originally fitted. A failed smart 1 must be replaced with a full or transitional smart 2.

Smart 2 units record border crossings and location automatically and can be interrogated remotely. Transitional smart 2 units lack the approved Galileo location-verification software; the UK, EU states and the Commission have agreed their outputs can still be treated as accurate.

Driver card

You must use your own driver card in a digital or smart tachograph when the vehicle is in scope. Insert it before the vehicle moves: driver in slot 1, second driver in slot 2. You may hold only one driver card. You must not use anyone else’s, and you must not let anyone use yours.

A driver who has never been issued a card must not drive an in-scope digital or smart vehicle. Forgetting the card is not a reason to keep manual records instead — you must not drive.

If the card is lost, stolen, damaged or malfunctioning, you may drive without it for a maximum of 15 calendar days (or longer if needed to get the vehicle back to base). Take a printout at the start and end of each vehicle used that day. Mark each printout with your name or card/licence number, any manual other-work / availability / rest entries, and your signature. Report it to DVLA and apply for a new card within seven calendar days. Apply through GOV.UK (DVLA in Great Britain; DVA in Northern Ireland).

Modes

Driving is usually recorded automatically. You must set the mode for everything else:

Mode	Use
Other work	Any work that is not in-scope driving, including work for another employer or outside transport
Availability	Waiting time whose duration is known in advance (for example waiting to load, or accompanying a vehicle on a ferry). For a crew, sitting next to the driver while the vehicle is moving, unless you are working or on a break
Break / rest	Breaks, daily or weekly rest, annual leave and sick leave. No driving and no other work. Rest means you may freely dispose of your time

When the vehicle stops, the unit may default to rest or to other work / availability, depending on how it was calibrated. Check the mode. If the record is wrong, correct it on a signed printout (digital/smart) or on the back of the chart (analogue), with the reason, as soon as you can.

Manual entries

GOV.UK says a manual record is legally required when activity happens away from the vehicle and you cannot use the tachograph; when the unit or card malfunctions; when you depart from the rules for an unforeseen event; or when you need to correct a wrong mode.

Use the tachograph’s manual-input facility, an analogue chart, or printout paper. Diaries and timesheets are not a permitted substitute. Record country of start and end of the daily work period at the time, even if the card stays in overnight. Unless a smart unit does it automatically, record the country symbol at the first suitable stop after a border (or at the arrival port/station after a ferry or train).

What you must produce

Carry enough approved print roll. At the roadside you must be able to produce your driver card and the charts / manual records for the current day plus:

the previous 28 calendar days — AETR journeys, and UK-only work under assimilated rules
the previous 56 calendar days — international goods journeys to or from an EU country

That is a production rule, not a new download interval. Which rules apply, and 28 vs 56 days

Downloads (operator)

Operators must download the vehicle unit at least every 90 days and the driver card at least every 28 days, and analyse the data. They must also download a card immediately before a driver leaves, and without delay if a card is damaged or data may be overwritten. Do not confuse those intervals with the 56-day roadside look-back.

Broken tachograph

A broken or faulty unit must be repaired by an approved workshop as soon as circumstances permit. If the vehicle cannot return to the operator’s premises within one week of the breakdown or of discovering the fault, the repair must be done en route. While it is unserviceable, keep a signed manual record of the periods the unit is no longer recording correctly. Ask the workshop to download the unit; if they cannot, they should issue a certificate of undownloadability, which the operator must keep for at least 12 months.

Calibration

Check the calibration plaque (or interrogate the unit) before you use it. Installation, calibration and sealing must be done at an approved tachograph centre.

Analogue: inspect every 2 years; recalibrate every 6 years.
Digital and smart: recalibrate every 2 years; after any repair; if the registration number changes; if UTC is out by more than 20 minutes; or after a change to tyre circumference or the characteristic coefficient.

UTC

The vehicle unit records in UTC (the same as GMT). The display can show local time, but manual entries must still be in UTC. During British Summer Time, UTC is one hour behind. GOV.UK’s example: other work from 06:00–08:00 local in June is entered as 05:00–07:00 UTC.

Common mistakes

Moving the vehicle before the card is in the correct slot.
Treating a forgotten card as a lost card and writing a manual record. Forgotten is not lost.
Leaving the default mode on after you stop, so rest is recorded as other work (or the other way round).
Carrying only 28 days of records on a UK–EU goods journey.
Entering local BST times as if they were UTC.

Checking your own records

HGV Time Pilot can read a driver card and show what was stored on it. That is useful for seeing the trail. It does not replace the vehicle unit, the card, or the printouts you must produce.

Confirm the legal position against the official sources below.