Schreiner Group: High-Security Seal for Continental - Goodbye to Tachograph Tampering

Digital tachographs thwart black sheep among haulers and bus operators. The devices required by EU Directive 165/2014 ensure that drivers are not on the road any longer than the allowed driving periods. Continental's plant in Villingen-Schwenningen and Schreiner ProTech teamed up to develop High-Security Seals which make any attempt to open the tachograph housing visible at a glance. The seals combine void effect, hologram and sequential numbering in an efficient solution for higher road safety.

Whenever police or customs authorities doing routine checks suspected truck drivers of not having observed rest times or having spent more hours at the wheel than legally permitted, the officers needed to inspect the tachograph for any signs of tampering. In order to make these checks easier for the officers, Continental decided to make any unauthorized unscrewing of the tachograph clearly visible.

"Continental's tachograph housings consist of two parts held together by a screw, and that is the weak point where people with criminal tendencies can get into the device to interfere with the data. The new seals are placed over both screw and connecting edge of the housing parts and immediately indicate any attempt to tamper with the tachograph," says Stephan Thanei, Key Account Manager at Schreiner ProTech.

One of the security features is the integrated void effect: when the seal is peeled off for the first time, a clearly visible message irreversibly appears on an initially uniformly colored surface. Thus, any attempt at opening the housing is indicated reliably. "Even when you try to reseal the housing exactly, the warning notice remains intact," explains André Siebeneicher, expert in security technologies at the Competence Center Schreiner ProSecure.

Furthermore, a customized hologram and sequential numbering, which is also stored in the corresponding tachograph, provide anti-counterfeiting security for the seal. Nobert Bankmann of Continental sums up: "The productive cooperation with Schreiner ProTech led to an easily checkable solution for the anti-tampering protection of our tachograph housings. In a first step we will install our tachographs in 500,000 utility vehicles. Not only will we comply with legal requirements – we will also promote better enforcement of the required rest periods, contribute to the fight against cheating and, finally, increase road safety."