G&D smart card meets all requirements for use in vehicles

Munich, February 11, 2004–In the future, all newly registered trucks and buses in the European Union are to be equipped with digital tachographs. These devices monitor whether or not drivers comply with road traffic regulations such as speed limits or mandatory rest times. Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) supplies the smart card technology for implementation of the required in-vehicle infrastructure. The Munich-based corporation is now the first supplier to receive the necessary EU certification for its technology. This confirms that interoperation of the smart card with the future “vehicle unit”, or on-board card reader, has been successfully tested for the first time. The G&D card thus meets all the requirements for use in vehicles affected by the new EU regulation.

According to the schedule laid down by the EU, truckers must be able to apply for the cards they need to operate their vehicles from May 2004, so the relevant technology must have been approved for on-road use. G&D is the first supplier whose smart card has been certified by the EU Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC; http://dtc.jcr.it) in Italy as interoperable with the individual system components in the vehicle. Thus, G&D has now obtained all the certificates necessary for type acceptance by Germany’s Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, the Federal Motor Transport Authority.