Tacho Symbols Explained for UK Drivers

Your tachograph records every period of driving, work, availability and rest against your driver card, and DVSA examiners read those records at roadside checks and during operator investigations. Selecting the wrong symbol can lead to a fixed penalty for the driver. For the operator, it can lead to a report to the Traffic Commissioner that puts the operator licence at risk. The rules come from Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, which now applies in Great Britain as assimilated law, and from the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005.

This guide explains each of the tacho symbols you will see on a digital tachograph display and printout. It covers the four activity modes, the card types, the special conditions for out of scope journeys and ferry crossings, and the event and fault markers. It also explains how to read a printout and when a manual entry is needed.

The Four Core Tacho Symbols for Driver Activity

Every shift is built from four activity states. Knowing exactly when each one applies is the foundation of a compliant record.

Driving (Steering Wheel)

Driving is the one mode you never select yourself. As soon as the vehicle moves, the tachograph records driving time against the driver card in slot 1. When the vehicle stops, most digital units switch to Other Work by default. If you are starting a break at that point, you must change the mode to Rest or Break yourself, or the break will count as working time.

You cannot change the mode manually while the vehicle is moving. A second driver who is travelling in the vehicle but not driving should record POA, and the vehicle unit keeps that driver’s card in slot 2 separately.

Other Work (Two Crossed Hammers)

Other Work covers every task for your employer that is not driving. Common examples include:

1. Daily walkaround checks before departure
2. Loading, unloading or supervising loading
3. Completing delivery notes, timesheets or consignment paperwork
4. Refuelling, cleaning or checking fluid levels
5. Coupling and uncoupling trailers

All of this time counts towards the 48 hour average weekly working time limit under the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005. A driver who spends 45 minutes on pre-departure checks, drives for seven hours and then spends 30 minutes on paperwork has worked eight hours and 15 minutes before the break, not seven hours. Over a long week, that difference adds up.

Drivers often misuse the crossed hammers symbol for waiting time. If you are waiting at a loading bay and do not know how long the wait will be, Other Work is correct. If you know the expected length of the wait in advance, POA applies.

Period of Availability (Square with a Diagonal Line)

POA is the most misunderstood of the four tacho symbols. It applies when you are not working but must remain available, and you know in advance roughly how long the wait will last. Typical POA situations include:

1. Waiting at a loading bay after being given a slot time
2. Travelling as a second driver without driving
3. Accompanying a vehicle on a ferry or train when you are not taking a rest
4. Waiting at a delivery point where the length of the wait is agreed or predictable

POA does not count as working time under the Working Time Regulations, and this is the main practical difference from Other Work. For a driver close to the weekly working time limit, logging POA correctly rather than Other Work can make a real difference to the hours left.

Take a driver who arrives at a port at 06:30 for a 09:00 sailing. The wait is known and predictable, so the correct mode until boarding is POA. Logging those two and a half hours as Other Work would add working time that did not happen, and leaves a record that is harder to explain at a roadside check.

Rest and Break (Bed)

The bed symbol covers all statutory breaks and rest periods, and you must select it yourself. It applies to the 45 minute break due after 4.5 hours of driving, which can be split into 15 minutes followed by 30 minutes in that order. It also applies to daily rest of at least 11 hours (or a reduced daily rest of nine hours, no more than three times between weekly rests) and to weekly rest. The drivers’ hours regulations guide sets out the full limits.

The most common mistake is forgetting to switch to the bed symbol at a meal stop. If a driver has driven for 4.5 hours, parks at a motorway service area and goes inside for food without changing the mode, the unit records those 45 minutes as Other Work. The required break is then missing from the record, which is an infringement of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006.

Keep the symbols to hand: download the free one-page tachograph symbols quick reference for the cab or for your drivers.

Tachograph Card Types and Special Conditions

Beyond the four activity modes, a digital tachograph shows which cards are inserted and whether a special condition applies to the journey.

The Four Tachograph Card Types

Your driver card must be in slot 1 whenever you drive. Driving without a card is a serious offence, and the vehicle unit records the absence of a card as an event that enforcement officers can see on the display, on a printout and through the control card.

Out of Scope (OUT)

The out of scope condition shows as the letter “OUT” on the display and on printouts. It is selected through the tachograph menu and applies when a journey falls outside the drivers’ hours and tachograph rules, for example driving only on non-public roads. The exemptions themselves are set out in Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 and in the national exemptions listed in DVSA guidance on drivers’ hours.

Use OUT only where an exemption genuinely applies. Selecting it to avoid recording driving time is treated as false recording, which carries far heavier penalties than a routine hours infringement.

Ferry and Train Crossings

When a vehicle travels on a ferry or train, the driver selects the ferry or train condition through the menu, and the display shows a ship symbol. This lets the driver take daily rest during the crossing even though the rest is briefly broken by driving on and off.

Under Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, a regular daily rest taken this way may be interrupted no more than twice by other activities, and those interruptions must not exceed one hour in total. The rest must still add up to 11 hours, and the driver must have access to a bunk or couchette. For example, two hours of rest at the port, 30 minutes boarding, seven hours of rest on board, 30 minutes leaving the ship and two more hours of rest would qualify.

Event and Fault Symbols on a Digital Tachograph

Digital tachographs use three warning markers. An exclamation mark (!) shows an event, which Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 defines as an abnormal operation that may result from a fraud attempt. A cross (×) shows a fault, which may result from an equipment malfunction. A question mark (?) shows a period with no recorded activity. All three are stored in the vehicle unit and are visible to DVSA at any inspection.

Faults (×)

A fault can affect the card reader, the display, the printer, the motion sensor or the vehicle unit itself. When one appears, follow these steps:

1. Note the time and the odometer reading.
2. Start keeping a manual record of every activity at once, on the back of a printout roll or on a temporary sheet, with your name, card number and signature.
3. Report the fault to your transport manager and keep any printout the unit produces.
4. Have the unit repaired at an approved tachograph centre.

Article 37 of Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 requires the repair to be carried out as soon as circumstances permit. If the vehicle cannot return to the operator’s premises within a week of the breakdown, it must be repaired on the way. A fault does not suspend the drivers’ hours rules, so the manual record must be complete.

Driving Without a Card

If the vehicle moves without a driver card in slot 1, the vehicle unit logs a “driving without an appropriate card” event. It is one of the first things an examiner checks at a roadside inspection or operator audit.

Overspeeding

The vehicle unit logs an overspeeding event when the vehicle exceeds its set speed limit for more than 60 seconds. The event is stored with the time, the duration and the highest speed reached, and it appears on printouts.

Power Supply Interruption

A power supply interruption event shows that the tachograph lost power while it should have been recording. It can come from a genuine electrical fault, but examiners also treat unexplained interruptions as a possible sign of tampering, so every one needs an explanation.

Unknown Periods (?)

A question mark marks a period with no recorded activity, usually because the driver card was out of the unit. When you insert the card again, the tachograph asks whether to add a manual entry for that gap. Enter what you actually did, such as rest at home or work for another employer.

How to Read a Tachograph Printout

A printout is a chronological record of a driver’s day, with each activity shown against its start time and duration. Being able to read one protects you at a roadside check and helps transport managers spot problems before they repeat.

What the Printout Shows

The printout uses the same four activity symbols as the display. It also shows the driver’s name and card number, the vehicle registration, the odometer readings, the places entered at the start and end of the day, and any events or faults. Most printouts include totals for driving, other work, availability and rest, so you can check the remaining driving time against the limits.

On a vehicle with two drivers, the printout keeps slot 1 and slot 2 data separate. Each driver’s record can then be checked against that driver’s own hours limits.

Start and End Locations

When you insert your card at the start of the day and remove it at the end, a digital tachograph asks you to enter the country (and, for Spain, the region). Smart tachographs also record the vehicle’s position by satellite at the start and end of the day and after every three hours of accumulated driving. Accept the prompts carefully rather than pressing through them, because a wrong country entry creates a record that does not match the journey.

Event Markers on the Printout

Events and faults appear in their own blocks on the printout, each with a time stamp. An overspeeding event, driving without a card or a power interruption stands out at once. A printout with no event markers is the clearest sign that the driver and the operator are keeping accurate records.

Manual Entries: When and How

A manual entry is needed whenever the tachograph did not capture an activity that belongs on the record. The most common cases are work done before the card was inserted at the start of a shift, rest taken away from the vehicle, and time spent working for another employer.

Manual entries are made through the tachograph menu by choosing the activity and entering its start and end times. DVSA examiners are trained to spot entries that do not fit the journey pattern, such as rest periods added afterwards in a way that conveniently removes an infringement. Make manual entries at the time, and keep them accurate.

Managing this across a fleet

On one driver’s record, a missed switch to the bed symbol is easy to spot. Across twenty drivers, the same mistake can sit unnoticed until a DVSA examiner finds it, so transport managers need a way to compare what the tachograph says with what the vehicle actually did.

Pocket Box Vehicle Tracking records every journey and stop, including how long each vehicle stood still, so a 45 minute stop with no break recorded stands out quickly. Pocket Box Fleet adds digital walkaround checks through the Pocket Box Driver App, which gives the time logged under Other Work at the start of a shift a matching check record with a date and time. Both sit alongside your tachograph downloads, and the tachograph remains the legal record of drivers’ hours. For a wider view of what operators are expected to keep on file, download the free UK Fleet Compliance Guide.

What to Check on Every Shift

For drivers, the highest risk moments are the break, when it is easy to forget to switch to the bed symbol, and waiting time, where Other Work and POA are easily confused. Checking the mode every time the vehicle stops removes most of the common infringements before they reach the record.

For transport managers, the risk lies in volume, because an error that nobody reviews tends to repeat across a fleet until DVSA sees it as a pattern. Regular downloads, prompt reviews of event and fault markers, and quick follow-up with the driver concerned keep the record accurate.

Download the free quick reference: all nine key tachograph symbols on one printable page, with the main drivers’ hours limits.

Frequently Asked Questions

This article is general information about the drivers’ hours and tachograph rules in Great Britain and is not legal advice. For a specific situation, speak to DVSA, the DVA in Northern Ireland or a qualified transport compliance adviser.