Publication of the European Commission's new tachograph proposals have been welcomed by the Freight Transport Association (FTA).

The leading trade body believes that the focus on making tachographs more driver-friendly will cut down on unintended driver hours errors and the use of new technology will reduce tachograph fraud among rogue operators.

Chris Yarsley, FTA's manager of Road Freight, Enforcement and EU Affairs, said: "These new proposals introduce some genuinely helpful technological improvements which will improve the way tachographs are used by commercial vehicle operators.

“The proposed technology will improve targeted enforcement of rogue operators and make it more difficult for tachograph tampering to take place. This is great news for the vast majority of UK operators which operate to the highest levels of legal compliance and safety and it will reduce the need for manual recordings and unnecessary roadside checks for compliant drivers.

"However, FTA does have questions over the Commission's claim of €500m annually in savings and will be demanding answers as to their calculations."