How to read the tachograph PDF
The PDF produced by Tacho Converter is not a raw dump of the .ddd file: it is
reorganised into sections meant to be read. This page explains what each section contains, and
why some of them are missing from certain files.
Three different reports, depending on what you uploaded
The layout depends on where the file came from, which the converter detects on its own:
| Source of the file | Report title | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Driver card | Driver Activity Report | One person's activity over the period stored on the card |
| Vehicle unit | Vehicle Unit Report | One vehicle and every driver who took turns at the wheel |
| Company card | Company Card Report | Operations carried out with the card: downloads, locks and unlocks |
The detected type is shown on screen when the conversion finishes, under Document type. Company card conversion is still experimental.
The driver card report
Header
Opens the document with the holder's and the card's details: first name and surname, Card number, Validity, the authority that issued it (Issued by) and, where the file contains it, the Licence. These are the identity details written onto the card when it was issued.
Period summary
The overview, in a single box: the Period covered by the file, Active days, and totals for Driving, Work, Availability and Rest, plus Total distance. Read this first: in a few lines it tells you how much the file you uploaded actually contains.
Active days are the days for which the card recorded something. A file spanning two calendar months may have far fewer active days, because holidays, sick leave and weekly rest produce no records.
Daily activities
One row per day, with the hours split between Driving, Work, Avail. and Rest, the Vehicle used and, on double-crewed days, the second Driver. This is the core of the document, and the longest table.
Activity timeline
The same information, drawn: each day becomes a twenty-four-hour bar, with colours separating driving, work, availability and rest. It shows at a glance how the day was distributed — whether driving was broken up, where the breaks fell, how long the night rest was — without reading a single number.
Events / violations
Whatever the tachograph flagged by itself: Events such as invalid card insertions, power interruptions or data conflicts, and equipment Faults. Each row carries date and time, type, duration and vehicle.
When there is nothing to report the PDF says so explicitly — "No events or faults recorded" — rather than leaving a blank space that would leave you wondering whether the section is empty or missing.
Places / routes
The start and end locations of shifts, entered by hand by the driver: Departure and Arrival, with date and time. These are typed into the tachograph manually, so they appear only if somebody actually entered them.
Border crossings
Date and time of each crossing, with Exit Country and Entry Country. Only second-generation smart tachographs record this: on an older card the section does not appear at all.
Special conditions (ferries/trains)
Periods when the vehicle was aboard a ferry or a train, and those marked out of scope, with start, end and duration. These are conditions the driver flags on the tachograph so that the time is read differently from the rest.
Vehicles used
The list of vehicles driven during the period: Plate, Nation, First Use, Last Use, opening and closing odometer and km travelled. Useful for working out which vehicle was in use on a given date.
The vehicle unit report
The perspective changes: no longer one person over time, but one vehicle and whoever climbed into it. The header carries the plate, the vehicle identification number, the country of registration and the Download period — the span the unit returned.
After the summary, daily activities and timeline — much like the card report — you get:
- Drivers — who drove the vehicle, with the number of sessions, first and last use. Then the detail of driver card sessions: insertion, withdrawal, which slot was occupied (Driver or Co-Driver) and the odometer.
- Events and faults — as in the driver report, but seen from the vehicle.
- Overspeed control — date of the last control, first overspeed after it, the count, and the maximum and average speeds recorded.
- Calibrations — work carried out on the tachograph: first installation, installation, periodic inspection or activation, with the workshop, the date of the next calibration and the odometer before and after.
The company card report
The shortest one: a card header and a table of activities, with date and time, type of operation — Data download, Tachograph lock, Tachograph unlock, Printer lock — and the plate of the vehicle involved. It reconstructs what was done with that card, and when. Conversion of this card type is still experimental.
The four activities
Every table and timeline rests on the four modes a tachograph records:
| Activity | What it records |
|---|---|
| Driving | The vehicle is moving with the card inserted |
| Work | Activity other than driving: loading, unloading, checks, operational waiting |
| Availability | Time on call without performing work, such as waiting at a loading bay |
| Rest | Break or rest |
Switching between modes during a shift is the driver's doing, via the tachograph selector. The
.ddd file — and therefore the PDF — reports those choices exactly as they were
recorded.
Why a section may be missing
If a section is absent, the reason is almost always one of three:
- That file type doesn't carry the data. Calibrations exist only in the vehicle unit, places only on the driver card.
- That equipment generation doesn't record it. Border crossings and loading/unloading operations belong to the more recent smart tachographs.
- Nothing was recorded. No events, no manually entered places, no crossings during the period.
There is a fourth case, and it is worth stating plainly: conversion is not yet complete. Some parts of the file are not carried into the PDF. If you need a section that isn't there today, tell us — that is how we decide what to add next.
This page describes how Tacho Converter works. For legal obligations, refer to the official texts.