Tachograph readout

The two deadlines

The maximum periods sit in a separate implementing regulation: 90 days for vehicle unit data and 28 days for driver card data.

The maximum period within which the relevant data are downloaded shall not exceed: (a) 90 days for data from the vehicle unit; (b) 28 days for data from the driver card.

Commission Regulation (EU) No 581/2010, Article 1(3). Accessed 26 August 2026.

Note what these periods are: maximums. A Member State may prescribe shorter ones, and the company has to download more often anyway if that's what it takes to capture everything:

ensure that all data are downloaded from the vehicle unit and driver card as regularly as is stipulated by the Member State and that relevant data are downloaded more frequently so as to ensure that all data concerning activities undertaken by or for that undertaking are downloaded

Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, Article 10(5)(a)(i).

Why 28 days for the card? Because the card's memory fills up around that point and the oldest data starts getting overwritten. Download too late and the data is simply gone, and that's an infringement on the company's side, not yours.

It's the company's duty

The whole obligation in Article 10(5) sits with the transport undertaking. You don't have to download anything yourself, and you don't need any equipment for it. In practice, what you do is hand over your card or leave it in the unit when planning or the workshop does the download.

The same article also makes the company liable for infringements by its drivers, even ones committed abroad. And there's another rule worth knowing: a company may not pay you by distance travelled, delivery speed, or amount of goods carried if that payment endangers road safety or encourages infringements.

A transport undertaking shall not give drivers it employs or who are put at its disposal any payment, even in the form of a bonus or wage supplement, related to distances travelled, the speed of delivery and/or the amount of goods carried if that payment is of such a kind as to endanger road safety and/or encourages infringement of this Regulation.

Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, Article 10(1). See also Article 10(3) on the undertaking's liability for its drivers' infringements.

Twelve months' retention, accessible for a check

ensure that all data downloaded from both the vehicle unit and driver card are kept for at least 12 months following recording and, should an inspecting officer request it, such data are accessible, either directly or remotely, from the premises of the undertaking

Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, Article 10(5)(a)(ii). Accessed 26 August 2026.

So the downloaded files have to stay available for at least a year, and be produced immediately on request during a company inspection.

Your right: a copy of your own data

This is the part almost nobody knows about. The tachograph regulation itself says, of the transport undertaking:

Transport undertakings shall also give copies of data downloaded from driver cards to the drivers concerned who request them, together with printed paper versions of those copies.

Regulation (EU) No 165/2014, Article 33(2). Accessed 26 August 2026.

Ask for it, and the company has to give you a copy of what was downloaded from your card, with a paper printout. The same paragraph also covers record sheets and printouts, which must stay legible and available for a year. Useful in a pay dispute, a disagreement about your hours, or just to keep your own records.

And the company has to train you on it

One more obligation from the same article: companies are responsible for ensuring their drivers are properly trained and instructed on the correct functioning of the tachograph, must make regular checks that it's being used correctly, and may not give drivers any direct or indirect incentive to misuse it.

Regulation (EU) No 165/2014, Article 33(1).

So if you get handed a new type of tachograph with no explanation, that's not a gap on your side.

Also read

• Tachograph: the 56-day rule, which is a different duty from the company's own download schedule.
• Driver card lost or stolen
• Why your tachograph runs on UTC

Sources

• Commission Regulation (EU) No 581/2010 on the maximum periods for the downloading of relevant data from vehicle units and from driver cards, Article 1(3). EUR-Lex
• Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, Article 10(1), (3) and (5), consolidated version. EUR-Lex
• Regulation (EU) No 165/2014, Article 33(1) and (2), consolidated version. EUR-Lex

Legal text quoted verbatim from the consolidated English versions on EUR-Lex, accessed 26 August 2026. Member States can prescribe shorter readout periods than the EU maximums; check the national rule if unsure.