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Stronger and more unified enforcement of EU rules in international road transport as smart tachograph retrofit phase concludes for heavy-duty vehicles

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As of 19 August, all heavy-duty vehicles registered in the EU and operating in member states other than their member state of registration must be fitted with a smart tachograph (version 2). 

The second version smart tachograph was introduced by Mobility Package 1 to protect the rights of drivers, ensure fair competition, and promote road safety.  

It comes with several new key features, such as the automatic recording of border crossings, the recording of loading and/or unloading operations, improved capability for software updates, as well as greater anti-tampering resistance. Combined with the remote detection equipment that member states purchased by 18 August 2024, the second version smart tachograph also allows enforcement authorities to better target vehicles at the roadside. It uses data transmitted remotely by the vehicle, paving the way to smarter enforcement, in particular of driving and rest time rules. The data recorded also supports other key  road transport internal market rules, such as those on the posting of drivers and cabotage operations.  

New heavy-duty vehicles registered for the first time from 21 August 2023 have already been fitted with the second version smart tachograph. Vehicles engaged in international transport previously equipped with an analogue or digital non-smart tachograph had this replaced by 31 December 2024. Vehicles previously equipped with a first version smart tachograph had until 18 August 2025 to replace it. 

Road transport operators therefore had two years to replace their first smart tachograph with the updated second version. This corresponds to the normal timeframe for periodic tachograph inspections. 

In a next step, light commercial vehicles (LCV) of more than 2.5 tonnes will need to be equipped with a second-version smart tachograph by and from 1 July 2026, if they are registered in the EU and engaged in international road transport. From the same date, these vehicles will also fall within the scope of the EU driving and rest time rules (Regulation (EC) No 561/2006). 

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