Which vans are affected — and which are not
The trigger is the activity, not just the weight. You must use the tachograph if you drive a vehicle over 2.5 t MAM and carry out international goods transport or cabotage within the scope of Regulation 561/2006.
The EU Regulation itself sets out exemptions that apply in all countries. The most relevant one for the sector is own-account (private complementary) transport: light vehicles carrying goods for the company's or the driver's own account are exempt, provided that driving is not the main activity of the person at the wheel. Spain adds further exceptions in Royal Decree 640/2007, but remember that other countries may have different exemptions from those in the Spanish rules.
Not just any device: it must be a 2nd-generation smart unit
The Ministry stresses that the device to fit is a second-generation smart tachograph (G2V2). If your light fleet is not yet compliant, check the international transport retrofitting calendar.
The Ministry note: how to record your activity
In the absence of EU guidance, the Spanish Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, together with the regional governments, has published its own interpretive note. It is not limited to vans: it covers all vehicles with partial exemptions, such as roadside recovery cranes or milk collection. Its criteria distinguish two scenarios:
| Scenario on the day of the check | What the Ministry requires |
|---|---|
| EXEMPT activity (outside the scope of Regulation 561/2006) | Driving and rest times are not checked. No card needs to be inserted (digital) and no record sheets are required (analogue). |
| Activity WITHIN the scope of Regulation 561/2006 | The driver must justify prior activities by presenting the card with the activity record. |
The two options to justify your activity
- Recommended and preferred option: use the card while keeping "out mode" active on the device during all activities outside the scope of the Regulation. The tachograph itself then separates what counts from what does not.
- Alternative option (manual entries): manually record the activities carried out before entering scope. The Ministry warns this method is more complex and error-prone over long periods.
The document highlights a common mistake: it is incorrect to record several consecutive days as "rest" if driving outside scope took place on those days. Instead, each period of excluded driving must be entered individually as "other work", and periods where the mobile worker need not remain at the workstation but must stay available should be logged as "availability".
Germany gives no grace period: first fines and immobilisations
Anyone expecting a soft launch should look at Germany. Within days of the rule taking effect, control teams were already stopping vans and issuing sanctions. In a joint operation on the A7 motorway near Kirchheim — involving the German police, the Federal Office for Logistics and Mobility (BALM), regional authorities and Hessen Mobil — officers inspected 26 vehicles and immobilised 10 until deficiencies were corrected.
Violations included serious overloading, major technical defects, dangerous load securing and driving and rest time breaches. And, crucially for the light sector: inspectors found three vans without the required tachograph. All three drivers were fined and all three vehicles immobilised.
Fitting it is not enough — you have to use it
Even before 1 July, a Polish operator who had installed a 2nd-generation smart tachograph early was fined €250 at a check by the motorway police and BALM: the device was mounted, but the driver was not inserting the card. For the German authorities, if a vehicle has a tachograph, it must be operational and used in line with the rules. See the penalty for the 2026 sanctions scale.
An industry asking for clarity
The Spanish national transport federation (Fenadismer) calls it "utterly incomprehensible" that the European Commission has not issued common interpretive guidance. Without a centralised criterion, each Member State can apply the rule differently, creating legal uncertainty for a light fleet that crosses borders several times a week. Until Brussels fills that gap, the responsibility of reading the rule correctly falls on whoever drives the van.