Digital took over so completely that the analogue chart is treated as history, and then an operator buys a 1990s tipper or takes on a vintage coach and the office is reading a wax disc again. Analogue vehicles still exist in GB fleets, and the obligations around them are the same obligations: record, examine, find, act, keep. This page is about what a chart still requires, and about the part that is identical either way, which is what happens once a finding exists.
What the chart is and what it still requires
A tachograph chart is the paper disc an analogue unit marks: a trace of driving, other work and rest around a 24 hour dial, with the driver's entries in the centre field. It is read by eye or by a chart analyser, and it has to be collected, examined and kept exactly as a digital file does. The difference is entirely in the collection and the reading; the obligation is not lighter because the medium is older.
Reading a chart against a file
A digital file gives minute-level activity; a chart gives a trace whose precision depends on the pen and the reader. An office running both has to accept that a mixed fleet produces two grades of evidence, and should hold the analogue side to the same regime rather than a looser one, because the examiner will not grade the fleet on medium.
What an infringement record must show, chart or file
A tacho infringement is found by the same comparison either way: activity against the limit. What matters afterwards is identical: the finding, the date, what was put to the driver, their explanation, their signature, and what the office did. Infringements without that loop are a list nobody acted on, and a list nobody acted on is worse in an inquiry than a shorter list that was worked properly.
Questions people ask about tachograph chart
Are analogue tachographs still legal?
Older vehicles fitted with them are still in use in GB fleets, and the recording and retention obligations around them are the same. Whether a particular vehicle may use one is a scope question for the guidance.
How is a chart analysed?
By eye or by a chart analyser that reads the trace. The output is the same comparison a digital file gets: activity against the limits you work to.
What does a tacho infringement record have to show?
The finding and its date, what was put to the driver, their explanation, their signature and what the office did about it. That loop is the compliance regime; detection alone is not.
Can one system hold both?
It should. A mixed fleet with two records in two places is a mixed fleet whose evidence is half missing when somebody asks for all of it.