Guidance

Approved tachograph centre special notice 01-25

Published 16 March 2026

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

1. 2025 payments

Our records show that there are still approximately 35 centres who have not paid their 2025 fee. Several centres had their authorisation withdrawn in 2024 as a result of this.

Please note if this is not paid by 31 January 2025, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) will suspend your tachograph centre account and notify you via your registered contact email address that the centre’s approval has lapsed. Your centre will not be permitted to continue calibration work, and the nominated technicians will not receive any workshop cards in April 2025.

To re-activate your account, you will be required to apply for approval and pay the required fee of £361.

This is in line with the process detailed in the Approved Tachograph Centre Manual, which states:

8.13.2 - Where withdrawal arises as a result of late payment of fees, renewal of the approval will lapse or may be declined. In such circumstances the approved tachograph centre will be required to cease conducting tachograph work from the date on which the approval lapses. Under these circumstances a new application for approval along with the approval fee may be made at any time and will be considered on its individual merits.

2. Tachograph retrofit rules

The department has now clarified that the retrofit requirement will not be enforced for:

• heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) by authorities in the EU and UK before 28 February 2025
• public service vehicles (PSVs) by DVSA as the UK legislation will be amended to apply AETR rules to these vehicles when on international journeys between the UK and EU

When UK legislation has been amended to require PSVs used on international journeys between the UK and EU, to come under scope of the AETR rules, then the retrofitting dates for the smart tachograph 2 would no longer apply to these vehicles. Therefore, until the legislation is amended DVSA will not be enforcing the requirement to retrofit the smart tachograph 2 into PSVs.

3. 2025 workshop cards

Centres are reminded that DVSA will be arranging for the 2025 issue of Workshop cards during February and March.

Any centre who has not updated their training certificates with DVSA will not receive a workshop card. If your technician has had refresher training in 2024, please make sure you have updated DVSA records.

As normal, PINs will be sent to the home address of the nominated technicians as listed on their driving licence. Workshop cards will be sent to the tachograph centre. Please check these relevant addresses to ensure they are correct and if required update these as soon as possible. If cards or PINs are sent to incorrect addresses, then this will result in a delay which may impact on the ability of a centre to complete calibration work.

Please also allow for differences in post delivery to the 2 different addresses, many of the issues which are experienced at this time of year are as a direct result of delayed post.

If a second card delivery is requested, please note that a second and different PIN must also be sent. Please exercise caution if this is the case, as using the incorrect PIN will invalidate the workshop card and require a further replacement.

All postal deliveries are sent 2nd class post by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and are out of DVSA control. DVSA cannot request a higher priority delivery and has no means of doing so.

Please note that DVSA has limited resources to administer the tachograph scheme, so priority for workshop card issue will be given to those with up to date addresses, records and payments. Any centre which has had their authorisation suspended due to lack of payment of the 2025 fee, or as a result of not updating tachosection@dvsa.gov.uk of training records, may experience delays in the issue of their workshop cards. This may impact on the ability of centres to complete tachograph centre work.

Finally, please note that regardless of the circumstances, it is not permitted to lend of a workshop card from one technician to another, or the movement of a card offsite. Any incidences will without exception, result in investigation and disciplinary action up to and including disqualification of any parties involved in line with the disciplinary section of the Approved Tachograph Centre Manual. Where appropriate, this may also include prosecution.

4. Speed limiter calibrations

Approved tachograph centres are reminded that any calibration of speed limiters, or any changes to speed limiter settings are restricted by legislation to authorised speed limiter centres. Being an authorised tachograph centre does not give any authority to change speed limiter settings on any vehicle covered by this legislation. Find out about becoming a speed limiter centre.

Any party altering speed limiters without the correct authority is in breach of the regulations and may face prosecution. Centres which are found to be altering speed limiter settings without the relevant authorisation will face investigation and disciplinary action.