Master class digital Tachograph fraud June 2010

Opening to the Master Class „digital tachograph/speed limiter, fraud and manipulation 2010” in Osnabruck

Ladies and Gentleman,

It’s a pleasure and an honour for me, to welcome you in the historical catholic convent Academy in Osnabruck.
Once again I’m looking forward to the professional and constructive lectures and discussions as I expect from this seminar and I’m glad that we can enjoy these really suitable premises -again- in the year 2010.

But first I want to welcome Mr. Frido de Vries, Vice-president of the police in Osnabruck, Mr. van de Beek from TISPOL and Mr. Damian Viccars from IRU.
I’m very happy to see, that the interest in this special field of work is still very high.

My special thanks for preparation of the actual session of the Master Class „digital tachograph/speed limiter, fraud and manipulation 2010” are addressed to the organizations ECR and TISPOL. Standing for both organizations I want to mention in this place Mr. Gérard Schipper (Chairman, ECR-TWG-Working Group) and Mr. Martin Bonthius (Chairman, TISPOL -TWG-Working Group).
Additionally: I`m very pleased to inform you that Gerard Schipper -since the Steering Committee ECR last Wednesday in Madrid- is also the new elected General Delegate of ECR. Gerard, congratulations once more.

Many thanks have to go also to Helfried Gössel from the Osnabrück-Police for hosting this Master Class once more. Everyone who ever prepared such a meeting knows, how much work is to do in front to make things successful.

In the common history of cooperation, ECR and TISPOL are now looking back on five and a half years of successful working; - based on respect and mutual knowledge transfer -. During this time it was a pleasure to see, how we could increase the theoretical and practical knowledge in the working fields of the analogue and digital tachograph. This dedicated knowledge-transfer is valuable for each single national control authority as well as for the European and the international organizations.

But this is only the side of the active members of this working group. We also got the effect, that the communicating of know-how and experiences within this working field helps other control authorities to improve its praxis level and the harmonization of the measures in its daily work with the different types of tachograph.

I know, all of you are completely aware of the extraordinary importance of the European cooperation of our organizations. So it is an outstanding pleasure to me, to inform you, that the cooperation contract between ECR and TISPOL had been prolonged. Also this was done in Madrid last week. The new declaration of intent was undersigned by the actual presidents of ECR and TISPOL, Mr. Luiz Martinez and Mr. Javier Sanchez-Ferragut.

I think this is an important step in the right direction and I also think we should expend the bilateral activities continually. The success of this cooperation is the product of your mutual understanding, of the tireless exertion to improve the work of the control authorities and last but not least –partly– also of our friendship. Today the common ECR and TISPOL are established as a natural task in the schedules and a familiar part of the daily work of all of our control officers.

One of the main structures of our common work and of our cooperation is the Tacho Web Group (TWG). 14 days ago the BAG had the pleasure of being the host of this working group, which will hold its fifth anniversary in September of this year.
The TWG is meeting three and four times a year respectively in different places. The main issues are the improving and harmonization of the detection and the manipulation of tachographs and of speed limiters. The TWG develops and shares the experiences for the training of the control officers and for the choice of the best available tools for the detection and identification of manipulations in this area.

This knowledge is used in all level of our organizations and also communicated to the European Commission. During the work of the TWG many different kinds of manipulation had been identified and catalogued. Extensive educational material had been developed on the base of this information. Among other things the TWG provides the so called “Tachobook” on a restricted website. The content of this “Tachobook” is kept up-to-date continually.

For today, - the most important part of the work of the TWG is the preparation of the presentations and lectures for this session of the Master Class. Since last year this working group is responsible for this get-together.
Again - Many thanks for the efforts, that have been made for the preparation for us all - for this event here. I think it will be worth every hour.

But it is never the success of only one organization. Today we need stable, reliable and trust worth networks.
So let`s have a look at the networks on the different national and international level.
On the federal level of Germany there is an annual, national experience exchange in different places between the Federal Office of Goods Transport and the federal state-police organization. Of course some of the representatives are here today.

These meetings normally are lasting one week. During this time the members of this committee are discussing about new insights and about the rising problems in the area of the supervision of the authorized workshops. I think this is not a national German problem. I will come back to this point later.

On the international level, the Tacho Web Group is the leading working group. The success of the TWG and the Master Class seminar can easily be shown by a look on the number of the detected frauds and manipulations on tachographs. The TWG numbered more than 13.000 cases in the year 2009. But I don’t want to anticipate the other speakers.

In this Master Class we are facing a fast growing and more and more professional opponent. During the last year we had to recognize, that the part of the high professional manipulation is growing really fast. The quality of this manipulation is implicating, that they have been installed by professionals, maybe even by authorized workshops. As we had to discover, there are commercial offers in the internet for a – lets say – “complete manipulation service” by professional repair workshops. And the cost for this manipulation are now quite affordable, they are about 300 to 400 EURO. Compared with financial damage for the honest competitors and the abilities of frauds, this is almost nothing.

In the moment we have to see very clear, that there are not only the risks from the side of the flouting of the social legislation, with all its disadvantages for the security of the traffic, there is also a growing risk on the technical side. Many manipulations have negative consequences for the working of safety relevant vehicle systems. Effected are for example the engine management, the braking system, the antilock brake and the motor brake.

This is one of the big tasks for the coming time, but I think we are not standing alone with this ambitious target. I can say the BAG is grateful for every support that can be given and will give every possible support in this working field of ECR or other European authorities.
Today we are appreciating the good and helpful work of the international organizations ECR and TISPOL and with this words I want to open the Master Class „digital tachograph/speed limiter, fraud and manipulation 2010”

!Let’s get it on!

Thank you very much for your attention!!
 

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