EU Mobility Package: Continental Welcomes Important New Roles for Intelligent Tachographs

• The DTCO 4.1 will record border crossings, making it easier for authorities to monitor compliance with rules on cabotage and posting of workers
• The technology company says this will strengthen the importance of the DTCO as an instrument for achieving goals in social policy and transport policy

Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany, July 9, 2020. The technology company Continental welcomes the adoption of Mobility Package I by the European Commission, the European Council and, on July 8, the European Parliament. Tachographs will have an important role to play here because the DTCO 4.1, Continental’s next-generation intelligent tachograph, will enable implementation of the guidelines set forth in Mobility Package I. Most important among these are the rules governing cabotage and posting of workers in the transport industry. In addition to their other functions, tachographs installed in commercial vehicles will record border crossings through a link to a satellite positioning system. “We welcome the use of the DTCO for monitoring compliance with the guidelines for cabotage and posting of workers, and we think it is good that tachographs will now be mandatory for vehicles with gross weights between 2.5 and 3.5 metric tons engaged in international transport,” says Gilles Mabire, Head of the Commercial Vehicles & Services business unit at Continental. “The Mobility Package I will ensure fair competition in the European transport industry and promote better safety. That is very good news.”

This decision is certain to increase the importance of intelligent tachographs because the Mobility Package requires them for achieving its transport policy goals. Trustworthy data from commercial vehicles will be needed for this purpose. “We’re making an important contribution to society, and we’re proud of it,” says Mabire. “We’re also very confident that our tachographs will help policymakers deal with a number of other important problems in society. Thanks to their ability to record clearly assigned data in a secure, trustworthy manner, they are a marvelous tool for this.”