The law imposes specific obligations on companies that operate vehicles equipped with tachographs. This involves the downloading of data from driver cards and from the memory of the onboard units of the vehicles, as well as their subsequent archiving and storage.
THE OBLIGATIONS regarding data downloading
The transport company has theobligation to download data, that is, to regularly transfer the data recorded in the chips of the driver cards and in the mass memories of the onboard units of the tachographs installed in their vehicles.
By “transfer” is meant the procedure by which a copy, equipped with a digital signature, of the data recorded in the memory of the vehicle's tachograph or in the memory of a tachograph card is created, without causing any alteration or deletion of the data itself.
Data downloading must occur according to the following regularity:
- every maximum 28 days for the driver card;
- every maximum 90 days for the memory of the onboard unit.
DATA ARCHIVING
I dati trasferiti dalla memoria delle carte conducente e delle unità di bordo devono essere archiviati per almeno 12 mesi dalla data di registrazione. Nell’archivio dati tachigrafo non è prevista l’obbligatorietà di disporre di una copia di sicurezza dei dati; è tuttavia advisable because the data must be accessible to the competent authorities in case of inspection at the company's premises.
RESPONSIBILITY of the company for violations of driving times
The law establishes a responsibility for the transport company for each infraction, due to non-compliance and the violation of driving and rest times, committed by the driver.
This is a form of independent responsibility that adds to the joint liability for any penalties imposed on the driver.
The law, however, conditions this form of responsibility on the failure to fulfill certain obligations, thus allowing for relief by complying with the obligations of:
- not compensating drivers based on the distances traveled and/or the volume of goods transported. This is if the compensations are of a nature that endangers road safety and/or encourages violations of driving and rest times;
- organizing the activity of drivers so that they can comply with driving/rest times;
- ensuring that drivers receive adequate training through their participation in specific courses. These are conducted by authorized training providers, with a participation certificate valid for 5 years;
- providing the driver, on an annual basis, with a written document, countersigned by the driver, containing adequate instructions regarding the behavioral rules they must adhere to in order to ensure compliance with driving/rest times;
- periodically check, at least every 90 days, compliance with the drivers' driving/rest times and prepare a written report that, signed by the driver, must be kept for at least one year from the date of drafting.
Recipients of corporate obligations
The obligations imposed on the company are distinguished depending on whether they concern driving personnel (data download, organization, training, control, etc.) or vehicle fleet personnel (data download, proper functioning of the tachograph), in particular:
- regarding the vehicle fleet, it should be specified that corporate obligations are not limited to vehicles owned by the company, but extend to all vehicles used by it, thus also including vehicles possibly held under lease. The correct use of the company card will allow downloading only the period during which the vehicle was in the material availability of the company.
- as for mobile personnel, it should be considered as such anyone who is responsible for driving a vehicle that requires the mandatory use of the tachograph, even if the driving is limited to a short period, regardless of any contractual classification.
Recipients of the company's obligations are indeed the drivers who provide their service in any capacity and under any employment contract, including contracts for occasional, intermittent, or “on-call” work.