On December 19, 2024, the Romanian road transport association UNTRR announced that DG Move, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, held a meeting the previous day regarding the requirement for industrial vehicles involved in international road transport to be equipped with a second-generation (V2G2) smart tachograph from January 1, 2025. This rule also applies to vehicles currently equipped with analog or digital non-smart tachographs, while those with first-generation smart tachographs face a later deadline of August 28, 2025.
During the meeting, most member states, except Denmark, supported the request previously submitted by UNTRR and backed by the International Road Transport Union (IRU) to recommend a grace period. This would mean applying the rule without imposing penalties for the first two months of 2025 due to delays in some countries in installing the new tachographs. According to the UNTRR statement, "the postponement of penalties will only apply until March 1, 2025, and only for vehicles equipped with analog or digital non-smart tachographs that should have been retrofitted by December 31, 2024." It also reiterated that "for vehicles equipped with the first-generation smart tachograph, the retrofitting deadline remains August 28, 2025."
The DG Move recommendation is expected to be published on December 20, 2024. However, it is important to note that this is merely a recommendation, not a regulatory provision. Therefore, the application of the grace period will depend on the decision of each individual country. For instance, it is unlikely to be implemented in Denmark. A study presented by the IRU to DG Move reveals that between 55% and 65% of the 3.5 million industrial vehicles required to install the second-generation smart tachograph will not meet the December 31, 2024, deadline.
