Missing mileage
Accurate mileage tracking is crucial for Operator’s Licence holders to ensure compliance. It ensures that drivers are complying with regulations and driving within the legal limits. Additionally, it also helps monitor the overall safety of the vehicle.
Missing mileage refers to any distance that a vehicle has travelled and the vehicle tachograph unit recorded it as a distance travelled with no driver tachograph card being used. This can occur for a number of reasons, such as faulty equipment or tampering by the driver.
It should be noted that regardless of the cause, missing mileage can be a serious issue for both the driver and the operator.
For drivers, missing mileage can result in potential fines or penalties. This occurs if they are found to be driving without the driver card being used as required to record their driving and rest.
Subsequently, if the missing mileage is not addressed, it can lead to non-compliance of the Operator’s Licence holder.
How to identify missing mileage?
A tachograph analysis software can be used to identify any missing mileage and address any issues that may arise.
To identify missing mileage the operator is required to download the vehicle tachograph unit and analyse the data. By analysing the data, they can identify any issues and take steps to address them. This may include scheduling vehicle maintenance, re-training drivers on the correct driving procedures or disciplinary action.
Every tachograph analysis software should be able to produce a missing mileage report. However, this report may be titled differently, i.e. vehicle driven without a card, missing card, unknown driver or missing mileage report.
Furthermore when missing mileage is identified it is crucial to investigate the cause of it and take adequate action. This is also required to be recorded and kept on file to ensure the information is available to the DVSA should it be requested.
The most common occurrences of missing mileage are:
- Vehicles being operated under GB Domestic hours where use of a tachograph is not required
- Vehicles undergoing road tests for technical development, repair or maintenance purposes, and new or rebuilt vehicles which have not yet been put into service
- Off-road vehicle movement
For a full list of tachograph rules, please visit Tachographs: rules for drivers and operators: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
This blog was written by VDO Partner – FleetPlanner
For more information on related topics, or FleetPlanner, please visit: https://fleetplanner.co.uk/
