There are about 2 million "trucks" (as in Heavy goods type, of over 3.5 tonnes gross weight) in the UK alone. Thats without the other EU member states and their goods vehicle network(s).
So, as I (being a "Professional" driver) am subject to the "Tachograph" regulations, I would like to find out/learn about, the possibilities of developing a "tachograph timer" application that I could use on a mobile/cell phone.
Why? Because most drivers will have a mobile/cell phone and because non-adherence to the "tacho regs" can result in some quite severe fines (AFAIK, in the UK, it's a maximum of £2700 per "tacho offence" and it's very easy to accidently "clock up" two or three "offences" in a working day).
There are a few proprietary (portable) timer devices available that "do this", but some are over priced, some are not very well built, and it's yet another piece of kit to carry around/loose/break etc etc.
If a professional/vocational driver has a phone thats been supplied by an employer, it's more likely than not, going to be a basic, yet "hard working" device (similar in capabilities to the Nokia 3310 that my employer has given me) or of a "corporate" nature.
Yes, I do have my own Palm OS based "Treo 650", but most won't have access to a "smart phone". Though it's occurred to me that it might be possible to port anything that I might be able to develop/produce for more than one mobile OS.
I'm wondering if it's gonna be better to see if I can find out about doing this for symbian OS first or just concentrate on Linux, as I suspect that I'll end up replacing my Treo 650 with some form of linux based smart phone (seeing as how some are "coming out" in the near future though it might also be good if I could do this for Palm OS as well, even if it's only to make my Treo last a bit longer
).
What the application needs to be able to do is (basically) as follows:
1. To start timing when told.
2. To stop timing when a different "timing mode" is selected i.e when changing from a driving activity, to a "other work" (not driving, but not having a break) mode.
3. The same "stop timing" ability when changing from either "driving" or "other work" to break or rest activity.
4. To be able to warn a drive when a certain activity is likely to become "illegal" and when that actually happens (like when I've completed a maximum of 4.5 hours driving - a.k.a. "the first half" and have to take a minimum of 45 minutes break, likewise when I might have completed a second 4.5 hours driving period).
5. That this can only happen for a maximum of 6 consecutive days before a statutory "weekly rest" is taken.
6. To be able to "total up" the amounts of recorded time in the above parts and be recoverable for up to 4 weeks.
That is the basic first part of any development, but as with any of the "official" type rules I might be subject too, there are some variations that it would be nice to be able to have to make the applications abilities more comprehensive (like the total normal amount of "work", including driving, loading/unloading and breaks normally allowed in a day come to 13 hours, but this can be extended to 15 hours 3 times a week, plus it's normally a max of 9 hours driving per day, but again this can also be extended to 10 hours twice a week).
This doesn't take into account the "normal" amount of daily or weekly "rest" (as different from break) that must be taken (11 hours daily and 45 hours weekly - which can in turn, be reduced when away from the vehicles base/yard/depot location, but must be "compensated for" later).
It just goes on a bit more, but as these are legal requirements, and it would still require a driver to make manual input to start/stop/pause the device/application, it can never be more than an "assistant" to help guide the driver as to his/her activities during a working day/week etc.
Apologies if this post does seem to "drag on" a bit, but I'm sure you understand that while this type of application is very much "niche", it's also very important to those of us who work as professional drivers (HGV, and possibly certain Bus/Coach drivers, but their "rules" are subtley different) to be able to keep on the right side of the law.
So any help/assistance/advice/instruction or constructive comment you may be able to offer as to how I might be able to achieve this is very much appreciated. It may even encourage some of the millions of EU professional drivers to "convert" to linux based devices as and when they are available. It's my hope that I would be able to make this a cross platform app, but I "have to learn to walk, before I can run" and have absolutely no idea of how I might start.
regards
John
