The Traffic commissioner for London and the South East, Nick Denton has called on road transport operators to manage their digital tachograph downloads or face the consequences. The TC said there is no excuse for failing to make the necessary drivers’ hours checks and called for a culture change after he suspended the London Borough of Croydon from operating for three days after it failed to carry out any downloads from vehicle units for ten months, despite stating that monthly downloads would be carried out. The TC also revoked an O-licence held by a Faversham-based operator for failing to download any tachograph data since 2011. The issue was identified after a driver was stopped by police having committed daily and weekly rest offences. Mr Denton said: “I am concerned about the culture of downloading digital data across the industry and these two cases illustrate the problem. Both operators abandoned their responsibilities for considerable periods of time. Without carrying out downloads, how could they know whether drivers were working legally and safely?” Unfortunately some operators do not do anything with the downloaded tachograph data. Operators are expected to analyse the data for infringements and follow up the infringements with drivers. “I would advise operators running vehicles fitted with digital tachographs to review their downloading practices to ensure downloads are carried out within the legal time limits and do the job that they are designed to do – identify drivers who exceed the driving limits and take action to ensure they don’t do it again,” Denton said. Smartanalysis is the leading tachograph analysis and compliance management Software as a Service. It is used by fleets of all sizes to manage their compliance with downloading tachograph data, drivers hours and more. One important feature of Smartanalysis is the SmartAlerts automated email alerts to compliance issues that need attention such as digital tachograph download infringements.  Smartanalysis also includes a driver debriefing tool to show the authorities that the tachograph data is being used to manage drivers to ensure compliance with drivers’ hours etc. For more information on SmartAlerts for tachograhs download the infographic here. For more information on Smartanalysis simply complete the Call Back form.