Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2011)451 - Amendment of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 on recording equipment in road transport - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2011)451 - Amendment of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 on recording equipment in road transport. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2011)451  |
| date | 19-07-2011 |
Tachographs play a crucial role in checking compliance by professional road transport drivers with the rules on driving time and rest periods. They contribute to improving road safety, drivers’ working conditions and fair competition between road transport companies. Making tachographs more cost-effective is one of the key elements of the strategy of the Commission to further integrate the road freight transport market and render road transport safer, more efficient and competitive as outlined in the White Paper on transport of 28 March 2011 i.
The EU has regulated the installation and use of tachographs since 1970. The current legislation in place for recording equipment is Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 on recording equipment in road transport i. The Regulation sets technical standards and establishes the rules on the use, type approval, installation and inspection of tachographs. It creates a range of legal obligations for manufacturers and authorities but also for transport operators and drivers. This Regulation has already been adapted ten times to technological progress, by the comitology procedure.
At present, two types of tachograph are in use by some 900 000 transport undertakings and 6 million drivers. In addition to a digital tachograph introduced in vehicles registered after 1 May 2006, the analogue tachograph has been in use since 1985 and is still used in older vehicles.
The attached proposal aims at amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 with a view to improve the tachograph system. This proposal is accompanied by a Communication which is transmitted in parallel to the European Parliament and to the Council and which outlines the other actions that are needed to make the measures of the attached proposal fully effective or to supplement them.
A significant share of the vehicles checked by national police or enforcement officers are found to be breaching the social rules. Roughly one fourth of these are found to be breaching tachograph rules. At any point in time, several thousand heavy duty vehicles are driving on the trans-European network with a manipulated tachograph or a non-valid card. Such a non-compliance with obligations for minimum rest periods results in driver fatigue, which can be estimated to produce an increase in the societal cost of accidents of € 2.8 billion per year. It also gives undue competitive advantage to those breaking the law, with negative impact on the functioning of the internal market and with severe health implications for the drivers.
Moreover, there is room to improve further the way in which the (digital) tachograph assists the drivers’ work and supports transport efficiency. Although the introduction of the digital tachograph have already substantially reduced the administrative burden on the various stakeholders, the annual cost of compliance, estimated to be approximately € 2.7 billion, is still too high.
The proposal therefore aims at better enforcement of the social rules and at reducing unnecessary administrative burden, by developing the technical aspects of the tachograph and increasing efficiency.
The proposal fits into the policy announced by the Commission in its White Paper ‘Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area – Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system’[3]. It is explicitly mentioned as part of Initiative 6 concerning Road Freight.[4]
The proposal also contributes to implementation of the Action Plan on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) i and Directive 2010/40/EU on the framework for the deployment of ITS in the field of road transport and for interfaces with other modes of transport.[6]
The proposal also takes into account the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and in particular the right to respect for private and family life (Art.
7), the right to protection of personal data (Art.
8), the freedom to conduct a business (Art. 16) and the principles of legality and proportionality of criminal offences and penalties (Art. 49), and the right not to be tried or punished twice for the same offence (Art.50).
Contents
- RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS WITH THE INTERESTED PARTIES AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
- LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL
- BUDGETARY IMPLICATION
- 1.1. Grounds and objectives
- 1.2. Issue addressed
- 1.3. Consistency with other EU policies and objectives
- 2.1. Consultation of interested parties
- 2.2. Collection and use of expertise
- 2.3. Impact Assessment
- 3.1. Summary of the measures proposed
- 3.2. Legal basis
- 3.3. Subsidiarity principle
- 3.4. Proportionality principle
- 3.5. Choice of instrument
- 3.6. European Economic Area
- 5. SIMPLIFICATION
The Commission carried out a public stakeholder consultation from December 2009 to March 2010. Given the technical nature of the topic, participation was relatively large: 73 contributions, mostly of high quality, were received from various stakeholders.
Most stakeholders wanted to see the digital tachograph improved, but not replaced by some different type of recording equipment. Nearly all stakeholders were of the opinion that harmonised criteria were necessary at EU level for the recording equipment. The type approval process for the tachograph was considered satisfactory. Almost all stakeholders also stated that the level of security should be maintained or even enhanced. Several ideas were expressed and subsequently examined in the Impact Assessment to reduce the cost of the recording equipment and/or make a better use of it – for example merging the driver card with the driving licence.
The Commission has been in continuous contact with Member States and stakeholders through the Committee set up by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 for all issues related to recording equipment. The Committee normally meets once a year. The main stakeholders take part in this committee as observers. They include inspection and police organisations as well as manufacturers. In addition, the Commission has taken a number of initiatives to provide background for the proposal.
An extensive two year long consultation bringing together the main stakeholders was co-financed by the Commission.[7]
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) has assessed the present vulnerability and verifiability of the digital tachograph. The JRC also reported to the Commission on technical scenarios for further developing the digital tachograph.
The sectoral social dialogue committee on road transport was consulted on 26 May 2010. On 8 July 2010, the European social partners agreed on a joint statement on the review of the digital tachograph regulation, and this was taken into consideration when preparing this proposal.[8]
In order to prepare the Impact Assessment, the external contractor set up an Expert Panel including representatives of road transport associations, road transport unions, enforcement and type-approval authorities, card issuing authorities, vehicle manufacturers, and tachograph manufacturers. The Expert Panel reviewed the documents prepared by the contractor and attended a workshop at which the contractor’s draft final report was reviewed and discussed.
The stakeholder consultations and expert reports on the topic enabled the Commission to identify a broad set of individual measures likely to address the problems identified. This was followed by a pre-screening of possible measures.
Thereafter policy packages were established offering viable policy alternatives for achieving the objectives. Policy packages were needed because, in terms of security, the trustworthiness of the system depends on the security of many of its elements; and because different legislative procedures required (comitology vs co-decision). The policy packages can summarised as follows:
Policy Package 1 (PP1) is a technical package aiming simply at improvements of the current tachograph device and includes the following measures:
- Higher quality seals
- Better interface with the users
- More secure encryption technology
Policy Package 2 (PP2) is also a package of technical measures but which would substantially widen the functionalities of the digital tachograph, leading to a new type of digital tachographs.
- Improved tachograph functions (automatic and manual recording)
- Wireless communication for roadside checks
- Harmonised interface with other ITS applications
Policy Package 3 (PP3) includes only non-technical measures.
- More trustworthy workshops
- Make fraud with driver card more difficult
- Better training of control officers
- Minimum degree of harmonisation of sanctions
- Modernised rules on use
Policy Package 4 (PP4) is a combination of technical and system improvement measures (PP2+PP3).
From an effectiveness point of view, PP4 is by far the most attractive as it offers the highest potential level of achievement of the two specific goals. However, the coherence analysis shows that PP4 also presents the highest trade-offs between the positive economic and social impacts on the one hand, and the budgetary impacts on public authorities on the other. In terms of coherence, PP1 ranks highest. Finally, PP4 is also the most expensive in terms of investment needed, while PP1 is the cheapest and the easiest to implement, since it can be adopted without going through the normal legislative procedure.
Taking all these aspects into consideration, and in the absence of a full cost-benefit analysis, the positive effects of PP4 seem to far outweigh its costs. Indeed, the administrative burden reduction potential of PP4 is €515.5 million, well above the total costs of its full implementation. Therefore the analysis performed suggests that Policy Package 4 should be the preferred option.
The following main changes will be introduced through the proposed Regulation:
- Remote communication from the tachograph for control purposes (Article 5 of the future tachograph regulation): this measure will give control authorities some basic indications on compliance before stopping the vehicle for a roadside check. Compliant undertakings will avoid unnecessary roadside checks and could thereby benefit from a further reduction of administrative burden.
- Merge functionalities of driver cards with driving licence (Article 27 of the future tachograph regulation: by merging the driver card with the driving licence, this measure will increase the security of the system as drivers would be less inclined to use their driving licence under fraudulent circumstances. It will also significantly reduce administrative burden. This measure requires minor adaptations of Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on driving licences. The corresponding proposal is being developed in parallel to this Regulation. The Commission will transmit it to European Parliament and the Council as soon as possible.
- Automated recording of precise location through GNSS (Article 4 of the future tachograph regulation): this provision will give control authorities more information for checking compliance with social legislation. By using automated recording, it will also help to reduce administrative burden.
- Ensure integration of digital tachograph in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) (Article 6 of the future tachograph regulation): by providing for a harmonised and standardised interface of the tachograph, other ITS applications will have easier access to the data recorded and produced by the digital tachograph.
- Increase the trustworthiness of workshops (Chapter IV, in particular Article 19, of the future tachograph regulation): by strengthening the legal framework for the approval of workshops for example with a system of regular and unannounced audits and prevention of conflicts of interest, the trustworthiness of workshops will be increased and the risk of fraud and manipulation reduced.
- Minimum degree of harmonisation of sanctions (Article 37 of the future tachograph regulation): this minimum harmonisation ensures that infringements against the tachograph rules which are classified in EU legislation as ‘very serious infringements’[9] and as ‘most serious infringements’[10] will attract the highest category of penalties in national legislation.
- Training of control officers (Article 35 of the future tachograph regulation): the Regulation will require Member States to provide adequate training for their control officers in charge of checking the recording equipment.
- Scope of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 i (Article 2): this measure to exempt certain vehicles from the obligation to use the tachograph has been recommended by the High Level Group of Independent Stakeholders on Administrative Burdens chaired by Mr Stoiber. It will help to reduce the administrative burden for these undertakings which are mainly SMEs.
The revision of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 is also an opportunity to modernise and streamline the texts, for instance by providing clear definitions (Article 2 of the future tachograph regulation), making experts’ work more efficient by including experts from non-EU countries using the digital tachograph (Article 41 of the future tachograph regulation), and inserting a direct reference to data protection legislation (Article 34 of the future tachograph regulation).
The legal basis for this proposal is the same as for the existing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85, namely Article 91 TFEU.
The subsidiarity principle applies insofar as the proposal does not fall within the exclusive competence of the European Union.
The objectives of the proposal cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States for the following reasons. Road transport is becoming more and more transnational in nature. International road freight transport accounted for about one third (or 612 billion tkms) of total road freight transport in the EU in 2006. Social legislation in this field is harmonised at EU level through Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, and verifying compliance with this legislation requires recording equipment to be interoperable between Member States. Given the increasingly transnational nature of road freight transport in the EU and the harmonised nature of social legislation, it would be counterproductive to revert to regulating recording equipment at national level.
The proposal complies with the proportionality principle for the following reasons.
The overall objectives of the proposal are to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of the tachograph system. The measures proposed are proportionate to attain these objectives, as they will lead to reduction of administrative burden and costs related to the use of the tachograph by drivers, undertakings and control bodies. They do not exceed what is necessary to achieve the objectives.
As the proposal modifies a regulation, the instrument chosen is also a regulation. For the time being, it is proposed to revise only the articles of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85, not its technical annexes. After adoption of this amending Regulation, the legal text, including annexes, will be consolidated through a codification procedure.
The proposed act concerns an EEA matter and should therefore extend to the European Economic Area.
The proposal will not entail any additional cost for the EU budget.
This initiative contributes to achieve the aims of simplification. It falls within the scope of the Action Programme for Reducing Administrative Burdens in the European Union, and follows up on proposals supported by the High Level Group of Independent Stakeholders on Administrative Burdens chaired by Mr Stoiber. The proposal therefore allows national exemptions for certain companies from the obligation to use a tachograph for distances under 100 km, as announced by the Commission in its Communication ‘Action Programme for Reducing Administrative Burdens in the EU - Sectoral Reduction Plans and 2009 Actions’[12].