Downloading the vehicle tachograph in Spain: deadlines and the company card

The tachograph unit of each vehicle must be downloaded at most every 90 days, and the downloaded data must be kept for at least twelve months. The company organises the download with its company card, which is the card that allows the data stored in the tachographs of its fleet to be transferred.

Here are the time limits the European and Spanish rules set, when you must download even if it is not yet due, how the company card is requested and how Bus Center records the downloads of each coach so that none runs past its deadline.

How often the vehicle unit is downloaded

The maximum interval is 90 days for the unit installed in the vehicle. Commission Regulation (EU) No 581/2010 sets the maximum period for downloading the relevant data at no more than 90 days for data from the vehicle unit and no more than 28 days for data from the driver card.

The vehicle unit is the recording equipment itself, without the motion sensor or its cables, as defined by Order FOM/1190/2005, which governs the introduction of the digital tachograph in Spain. In its article 24, that order requires each unit to be downloaded, at the least, before the vehicle is transferred or returned to the lessor, when a malfunction is detected but the data can still be downloaded, when the authorities require it, and at least every three months (our translation).

Three months can be slightly more than 90 days, so the limit that rules in practice is the European one: anyone who downloads each coach within 90 days meets both.

The company card: what it is and how to request it

The company card is the company's key to extracting the data from its tachographs. Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 defines it as a tachograph card issued to a transport undertaking that needs to use vehicles fitted with tachographs, which identifies the undertaking and allows the data stored in the tachographs to be displayed, downloaded and printed.

In Spain it is requested from the body responsible for road transport in the place where the company has its registered tax address. Order FOM/1190/2005 allows as many cards to be requested as the company considers necessary, up to a maximum of 62, and gives them a validity of five years.

Renewal is requested in the same way, from that same body, and the order sets a deadline of at most fifteen working days before the card's expiry date. If the company no longer has vehicles with recording equipment, it must return its company cards to the issuing body.

How long the downloaded data are kept

The data are kept for at least twelve months from the date they were recorded. Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 requires companies to ensure that all data downloaded from the vehicle unit and the driver card are kept for at least twelve months after recording and that, if an inspector requires it, they can be accessed directly or remotely from the company's premises.

Order FOM/1190/2005 says the same in days: a minimum of 365 days from the date of recording. And it adds that every company that owns vehicles with a digital tachograph must respond to requests for data from the transport authorities or other control bodies; the data may be requested broken down by vehicle, driver or period of activity (our translation).

That is why downloading is not enough: you need to be able to find the file for a specific coach and specific dates when someone asks for it.

Driver card and vehicle unit: two different time limits

These are two different downloads, with different time limits, and it is best to track them separately:

What is downloaded	Maximum interval	Retention
Driver card	28 days	At least twelve months
Vehicle unit	90 days	At least twelve months

Downloading the driver card has its own cases (when the driver leaves the company, when the card expires and so on): we explain it in how and how often to download the driver card.

How Bus Center keeps track of each coach's downloads

Bus Center does not download the tachograph: it records the downloads you have already made with your own equipment. You upload the .DDD files to the company archive and the program logs each download using only the data in the file name (type, date, and, for the vehicle, registration number and chassis number), without opening its contents. Each download is linked to its coach by registration number, if it matches the one on the vehicle record.

With those dates, Bus Center monitors the 90-day limit for each coach: the tachograph section shows the latest download and the days elapsed, and the dashboard counts how many coaches are overdue for a download. If a coach appears in the downloads that is not yet in the program, it proposes adding it.

What it does not do: it does not read the data in the file, does not calculate driving or rest times and does not detect infringements. To analyse that data you use tachograph analysis software; the limits to watch are set out in driving and rest times for buses and coaches.

When a coach changes hands or the tachograph fails

There are moments when the download cannot wait for the deadline. The ones the Spanish order points out are these:

• Before selling the coach or transferring its use, or before returning it if it is rented.
• When a malfunction is detected, as long as the data can still be downloaded.
• When the authorities request it.

A good habit is to log these extra downloads just like the regular ones: that way the date of each coach's latest download stays accurate. You can see how this fits with the ITV (Spain's roadworthiness inspection), insurance and maintenance in fleet expiry date tracking, and the rest of the features on the Bus Center home page (in Spanish).

Sources consulted

Checked on 11 October 2026. We link to the original source so that you can consult the current text.

• Reglamento (UE) n.º 581/2010 de la Comisión, sobre los plazos máximos para transferir los datos de las unidades instaladas en los vehículos y de las tarjetas de conductor. BOE (copia del DOUE).
• Orden FOM/1190/2005, de 25 de abril, por la que se regula la implantación del tacógrafo digital (texto consolidado). BOE.
• Reglamento (UE) n.º 165/2014 del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, relativo a los tacógrafos en el transporte por carretera. BOE (copia del DOUE).
• Reglamento (CE) n.º 561/2006 del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, relativo a la armonización de determinadas disposiciones en materia social en el sector de los transportes por carretera. BOE (copia del DOUE).