TruckerVerse / Guide

Forgot to enter the country code

Older tachographs still ask you to enter the country manually at every border. The newest ones don't ask anymore, and that difference matters at a check.

Checked on 26 August 2026 4 minute read
Short answer

Older and current-generation tachographs: you still enter the country code by hand at every border crossing.

Smart tachograph version 2: the border crossing is recorded automatically, no manual entry needed.

When you have to enter it

On an analogue tachograph, a first-generation digital tachograph, or a smart tachograph version 1, crossing a border is not recorded automatically. The driver has to enter the country code manually, and skipping that step leaves a gap in the record with no country attached to the driving time either side of it.

When you don't have to do anything: smart tachograph version 2

The manual entry duty for a digital tachograph is set out directly in the regulation:

The driver shall enter in the digital tachograph the symbols of the countries in which the daily working period started and finished. From 2 February 2022 the driver shall also enter the symbol of the country that the driver enters after crossing a border of a Member State at the beginning of the driver's first stop in that Member State.

Regulation (EU) No 165/2014, Article 34(7), first and second subparagraphs. Accessed 26 August 2026.

The same article then carves out the exact exception that matters here:

It shall not be necessary for drivers to enter the information referred to in the first subparagraph if the tachograph is automatically recording location data in accordance with Article 8.

Regulation (EU) No 165/2014, Article 34(7), fourth subparagraph.

Article 8 is exactly what smart tachograph version 2 does: it logs the vehicle's position on its own, without the driver touching anything.

the position of the vehicle shall be recorded automatically at the following points, or at the closest point to such places where the satellite signal is available: the starting place of the daily working period, every time the vehicle crosses the border of a Member State, every time the vehicle performs loading or unloading activities, every three hours of accumulated driving time, and the ending place of the daily working period.

Regulation (EU) No 165/2014, Article 8(1). Accessed 26 August 2026.

So if your vehicle has smart tachograph version 2, the border crossing itself already sits in the record because of that automatic position log, whether the border is an internal EU one or the external Schengen border. There is nothing left for you to enter by hand.

What it costs

On a tachograph that still requires the manual entry, missing it is treated the same as any other incomplete tachograph record, a national enforcement matter with figures that vary by country and change over time. The EU regulation itself does not set a fine amount, it sets the recording obligation.

Also read

Sources

  • Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 on tachographs in road transport, Articles 8 and 34, consolidated version. EUR-Lex

The regulation text is quoted verbatim from the consolidated English version on EUR-Lex, accessed 26 August 2026.

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