European Digital Recorder Amendment Delayed
Amendment 6 to the European Agreement Concerning the Work of Crews of Vehicles Engaged in International Road Transport (AETR) will take effect no earlier than Sept. 21, 2010.
Amendment 6 to the European Agreement Concerning the Work of Crews of Vehicles Engaged in International Road Transport (AETR), which will require digital tachographs, or recorders, to be installed in new commercial transport vehicles in non-EU/AETR countries, will take effect no earlier than Sept. 21, 2010, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe announced recently. The amendment was adopted by the Working Party on Road Transport (SC.1) in Geneva, Switzerland in October 2008 and would have taken effect Dec. 21, 2009, but two countries filed statements saying they could not be ready in time.
Finland and the Netherlands said they intend to accept the proposed amendment, but the conditions necessary for their acceptance have not been fulfilled, according to UNECE. This means Finland or the Netherlands may submit an objection to the proposed amendment until June 20, 2010. If neither country acts by that date, the amendment will be deemed accepted and will take effect three months later, on Sept 21, 2010.
An AETR trust fund was created to help the Russian Federation implement the digital tachograph mandate. Non-EU countries had told UNECE and the European Commission more than a year ago that they were concerned about the June 16, 2010, deadline to implement digital tachographs for their new vehicles, and a delegation of non-EU representatives proposed a "safety valve" -- a possibility to review the deadline if they could not be ready in time -- in December 2008. A series of meetings began as experts worked on the implementation.
"As a consequence of these developments, amendment 6 to the AETR will not enter into force on 21 December 2009 as foreseen," UNECE announced. "The AETR provisions in force before that date remain valid and should be observed by all Contracting Parties (see text at http://www.unece.org/trans/conventn/legalinst.html#21)."
For more information, contact Virginia Tanase, economic affairs officer for the UNECE Transport Division, at [email protected].