At an extraordinary session of UNECE’s Working Party on Road Transport (SC.1) held in Geneva on 22-23 April 2010, the Contracting Parties to the European Agreement Concerning the Work of Crews of Vehicles Engaged in International Road Transport (AETR) reached agreement as part of a package on a six-month tolerance period for the implementation of the digital tachograph at pan-European level, ending on 31 December 2010.
The introduction of the digital tachograph device, which monitors the driving and rest periods of professional drivers engaged in international transport under the AETR and relevant EU Regulations, became mandatory for EU member States in June 2006, and will become mandatory to non EU-AETR Contracting Parties on 16 June 2010 following a four-year transition period. In spite of all efforts and the obvious progress made towards implementing the digital tachograph, some of the non-EU Contracting Parties may not be ready to fully implement it within the set deadline.
With this in mind, the “tolerance package” defines the conditions to be adhered to by the drivers of vehicles registered in countries that may fail to observe the deadline in order to be allowed to enter the territory of complying States until the end of this year without being subject to fines or denial of entry.
These measures, to be applied during the tolerance period with respect to the implementation of the digital tachograph by the Contracting Parties to the AETR, are:
In response to concerns expressed by some of the participants the European Commission assured that technical assistance will continue to be provided through the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Programme (TAIEX) to all Contracting Parties that request such support through their national TAIEX Focal Point.
For more information, please visit:  http://www.unece.org/trans/doc/2010/sc1/ECE-TRANS-SC1-S-390e.pdf
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Note to editors
The European Agreement concerning the Work of Crews of Vehicles Engaged in International Road Transport (AETR), of 1 July 1970, entered into force on 5 January 1976
The following countries are Contracting Parties to the AETR: Albania, Armenia, Andorra, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.
Ref: ECE/TRANS/10/P07