The mandatory installation of DTG (Digital Tachograph) is a familiar topic to any commercial vehicle operator. However, when speaking with transportation company owners and safety managers, they often get stuck on the following three questions:
“I thought installing the DTG was all there was to it—what else do I need to do?”
“How have we been submitting eTAS reports up until now?”
“In the event of an accident, does the company retain the data from right before the accident?”
These three questions are not mere curiosities. Each relates to areas that can lead to administrative fines or increased liability for the company in the event of an accident.
DTG obligations do not end with installation. Installation, storage, submission, and utilization—few companies manage all four aspects effectively, and this gap serves as the criterion that determines a company’s liability in the event of an accident.
This article answers the three questions above in order to outline the entire structure of DTG obligations that business owners must verify, and then covershow to use the records submitted via to the company’s advantage.
Key DTG Obligations at a Glance
① Installation Requirement: All commercial vehicles (yellow license plates) ② Data Retention Requirement: Keep driving records for at least 6 months ③ Data Submission Requirement: Regular submission via the eTAS system ④ Fines for Violations: Up to 5 million won (aggravated penalties for school buses in stages 1, 2, and 3)
Most business owners view DTG as an “obligation that ends once it’s installed.” They install it when registering a new vehicle and then forget about it as they operate their business.
The problem is that the Traffic Safety Act requires more than just installation. The three questions posed in the introduction are frequently asked in the field for the following reasons:
A DTG (Digital Tachograph) is a device that automatically records a vehicle’s speed, RPM, braking, GPS location, heading, acceleration, mileage, and traffic accident details onto an electronic storage device.
The legal basis for this is Article 55 of the Traffic Safety Act and Article 29-2 of the Enforcement Rules of the same Act; the standards and functions of the tachograph are defined in accordance with these regulations.
| Category | Analog Tachograph | Digital Tachograph (DTG) |
|---|---|---|
| Recording Method | Marked on recording paper with a needle | Electronic automatic recording |
| Recording Items | Speed, distance traveled, driving time | Speed, RPM, GPS, acceleration, braking, etc. |
| Daily maintenance | The driver replaces the log sheet daily | Autosave |
| Analysis | Visual Inspection | Utilization of the Trip Log Analysis System (eTAS) |
| Accident Analysis | Limited | Enables detailed analysis of data immediately prior to an accident |
The DTG is not merely a recording device; it is equipment that objectively analyzes drivers’ risky driving habits and plays a decisive role in determining the cause of accidents when they occur.
The Traffic Safety Act mandates the installation of DTGs in the following vehicles.
| Vehicle Type | Effective Date of Installation Requirement | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial buses and taxis | Vehicles newly registered on or after January 1, 2011 | Existing vehicles are subject to the requirement after a grace period ending December 31, 2012 |
| Commercial trucks and private taxis | Vehicles newly registered on or after January 1, 2011 | Existing vehicles will be granted a grace period until December 31, 2013, after which compliance becomes mandatory |
| School buses | Vehicles newly registered on or after January 1, 2021 | Existing vehicles are granted a grace period until December 31, 2022, after which compliance becomes mandatory |
You can consider that virtually all vehicles with yellow license plates —which are attached to commercial vehicles—are required to be equipped with DTG.
Apart from the installation requirement, certain vehicles are required to periodically submit their driving records to the Korea Transportation Safety Authority’s eTAS (Driving Record Analysis System).
| Vehicle Types | Start Date of Submission Obligation | Legal Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Route Buses | Existing | Enforcement Decree of the Traffic Safety Act |
| School Buses for Children | January 1, 2021 | Amendment to Article 55 of the Traffic Safety Act |
| Large Freight Vehicles with a Maximum Load Capacity of 25 Metric Tons | October 10, 2024 | Amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Traffic Safety Act |
| Large Special-Purpose Vehicles with a Gross Vehicle Weight of 10 metric tons or more | October 10, 2024 | Amendments to the Enforcement Decree of the Traffic Safety Act |
In particular, since the mandatory reporting requirements for large freight vehicles have been expanded starting in October 2024, operators of large freight transport businesses must ensure compliance.
Key Point to Note: Simply “installing” the device does not fulfill the obligation. Installation, storage, and submission are separate obligations, and failure to comply with any of them may result in separate administrative fines.
Simply installing a DTG does not fulfill all obligations. Business owners must also fulfill the following additional obligations:
Drive log data must be retained for at least 6 months. This retention obligation is an area that is often overlooked unless it is systematically managed at the company level.
Precautions for Data Retention:
In particular, if data from immediately before an accident is missing or damaged, this may be deemed a violation of the company’s safety management obligations.
Tachograph records must be submitted regularly to the Korea Transportation Safety Authority’s eTAS (Tachograph Analysis System).
There are currently three types of DTGs available on the market.
| DTG Type | Automatic Submission | Communication Fees | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Type | Not Available | None | Requires manual extraction and upload |
| Basic | Available (mobile app) | None | Automatic submission without communication fees |
| Online Type | Available | Occurs | Real-time data transmission available |
Since the manual submission method carries a high risk of omissions or delays, vehicles subject to regular submission requirements are recommended to switch to a communication-type or standard DTG.
Although not a legally mandated obligation, when determining a company’s liability in the event of an accident, an assessment is made as to whether “the collected driving record data was utilized for safety management.”
Areas of Utilization:
If data is simply accumulated without being utilized, it could be used as grounds for liability in the event of an accident, on the basis that “the company was aware of the risk but failed to take action.”
Pursuant to Article 65 of the Traffic Safety Act, an administrative fine of up to 5 million wonwill be imposed for the following violations.
An enhanced penalty system applies to school buses for children.
| Number of Violations | Administrative Fine |
|---|---|
| First Violation | 500,000 won |
| Second violation | 1 million won |
| Third Violation | 1.5 million won |
Failure to comply with DTG obligations is not merely an administrative violation. In the event of an accident, it leads to the following additional risks.
| Risk Areas | Impact |
|---|---|
| Criminal Liability | Serves as evidence of a violation of safety management obligations |
| Insurance Claims | Lack of evidence proving the cause of the accident → Unfavorable liability allocation |
| Administrative Sanctions | Lower safety management evaluation score |
| Serious Accidents Act | Basis forviolation of management executives’ duty to ensure occupational safety and health |
In particular, during the accident information collection phase—discussed in the section on what business owners must do when a truck accident occurs—DTG data serves as the most crucial objective evidence. If this data is missing or incomplete, the accident handling process itself becomes disadvantageous.
It is a mistake to view the submission of driving records merely as “homework that must be done.” The Korea Transportation Safety Authority’s (KTSA) eTAS analyzes the submitted records and returns the results to the transportation company. The functions provided by the KTSA are as follows:
In other words, “③ Data Analysis and Utilization” does not require any additional costs. The first step toward utilizing this feature is to log in to eTAS and open your company’s comprehensive diagnostic report.
Practical Tip: By extracting the “number of risky driving behaviors per 100 km” for each driver from the Comprehensive Diagnostic Report and conducting monthly interviews with only the top 20% of drivers, you can create a record of safety management activities without needing a separate system. Keeping the interview log and a printed copy of the diagnostic report together serves as proof that the data has been “utilized.”
While the statement “risky driving leads to accidents” may sound obvious, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority have quantified this using actual driving records. This is based on a comparison of DTG recordsfrom 8,792 drivers involved in accidents and 18,074 accident-free driversof commercial vehicles that traveled 10,000 km or more in 2021 (announced in May 2022).
| Vehicle Type | Drivers Involved in Accidents (Dangerous Driving Behaviors per 100 km) | Accident-Free Drivers | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bus | 64.7 cases | 37.6 cases | 1.72 times |
| Taxis | 67.0 cases | 51.7 cases | 1.30 times |
| Trucks | 41.1 cases | 25.5 cases | 1.61 times |
wasthe most common dangerous driving behavior across all vehicle types (28.44 incidents per 100 km for buses, 32.07 for taxis, and 14.8 for trucks). The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport stated, “A statistical correlation has been confirmed between dangerous driving behaviors, such as sudden acceleration, and traffic accidents across all vehicle types.”
This table offers two key insights for safety managers.
The background behind the requirement for large trucks weighing 25 metric tons or more and towed special-purpose vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 10 metric tons or more to submit driving records, effective October 10, 2024, is not “simply to collect data.” The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport explained the purpose of the amendment to the enforcement decreeat as “to verify compliance with rest periods (a 15-minute break after 2 hours of driving) and to correct drivers’ dangerous driving habits.”
In other words, the submitted driving records will serve as the primary basis for determining whether rest period violations have occurred. There are three key points to keep in mind in practice.
If manual submission of SD cards and USB drives from standard DTGs is the primary cause of omissions, the solution lies not in “trying harder to retrieve them” but in changing the method. Here are the options, listed in order of cost.
The Korea Transportation Safety Authority (KOTSA) has been operating free DTG inspection centers at freight terminals, highway rest areas, and other locations (22 locations as of 2024, including the Sin-tanjin Rest Area; open weekdays from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM). Issues such as power failures, missing basic information, or device malfunctions are repaired on-site at no cost, and upon request, the center will submit the driving records on your behalf. However, wiring issues, device malfunctions, and part replacements incur part costs. Since operating locations and schedules change annually, please check the eTAS announcements.
According to the Korea Freight Transport Association’s guidelines, there is no installation fee for the entry-level DTG if it plugs directly into the OBD port; for vehicles requiring wiring connections, the cost is approximately 55,000 won (including VAT). Communication fees are covered by the driver’s mobile data plan, so no additional charges apply. The General Insurance Association and the Korea Transport Safety Authority occasionally run campaigns to support owners of manual DTG-equipped trucks by providing automatic submission DTGs (February–March 2026, 257 participants), so keeping an eye on the Authority’s announcements can help you save money.
Hyundai Motor Company, Kia, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority agreed in June 2025 to develop a “Connected DTG” that automatically generates driving records using vehicle ECU data and submits them daily to eTAS. The plan is to complete development in 2025 and apply it to new commercial vehicle models starting in 2026. Considering that the installation cost for a physical DTG currently reaches up to 400,000 won per vehicle, companies planning to introduce new vehicles should check for this feature during the vehicle selection process.
Summary: If you have five or fewer vehicles subject to the submission requirement, start with Option ①; if you have more than five, Option ② is the most practical choice. Option ③ should be considered in line with your vehicle replacement cycle.
While a DTG records “what happened,” an AI camera-based safe driving solution detects driver behaviors—such as drowsiness, failure to watch the road ahead, and cell phone use—in real time and issues warnings on the spot. A.I.Matics’ AI safe driving solution integrates DTG, ADAS, and AI DVR into a single system, handling everything from eTAS automatic submission to the preservation of accident footage. A pilot project by the Korea Transportation Safety Authority (June–November 2024, involving 500 route buses from 13 companies) confirmed a 99.7% reduction in drowsy driving and an 87.6% reduction in traffic signal violations. Details are covered in -----.
A. All commercial vehicles (with yellow license plates) are required to be equipped with a DTG. For commercial buses, taxis, and trucks, the requirement applies to vehicles newly registered in 2011 or later; for existing vehicles, the requirement became mandatory after a grace period ending in 2012–2013. For school buses, the requirement became mandatory for new vehicles starting in January 2021, while existing vehicles were granted a grace period until December 2022 before the requirement took effect.
A. No. In addition to installation, there are three additional obligations: ① Retaining driving record data for at least six months; ② Regular submission of data to the eTAS system (for applicable vehicles); and ③ Safety management through the analysis and utilization of the data. Failure to comply with any of these obligations may result in separate administrative fines.
A. Route buses, school buses, and—effective October 10, 2024—large freight trucks with a maximum load capacity of 25 metric tons and large towed special-purpose vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 10 metric tons or more are subject to the regular submission requirement. For vehicles subject to the regular submission requirement, the use of a communication-type or standard-type DTG is recommended.
A. For general commercial vehicles, a fine of up to 5 million wonis imposed in accordance with Article 65 of the Traffic Safety Act. For school buses, a graduated penalty system applies: 500,000 won for the first offense, 1 million won for the second, and 1.5 million won for the third.
A. The legal obligation extends only to storage and submission. However, in the event of an accident, when determining whether the company fulfilled its safety management obligations, an evaluation is made as to whether “the collected data was utilized for safety management.” Failure to utilize the data could serve as grounds for liability, suggesting that “the company could have recognized the risk but failed to take action”; therefore, practical utilization is essential.
A. A DTG is a device that records vehicle operation data (speed, GPS, braking, etc.). A black box records video, and ADAS provides warnings for lane departure and frontal collisions. AI safe driving solutions integrate these three technologies to detect and warn of driver behavior (such as drowsiness, failure to watch the road ahead, or cell phone use) in real time, and even enable automatic submission of eTAS data. The adoption of such integrated solutions is recommended going forward.
To summarize the content so far in a single sentence:
Installing a DTG is the beginning of compliance, not the end. Only by systematically managing data storage, submission, and utilization can companies avoid administrative risks and, furthermore, secure points for accident prevention and safety management evaluations.
While the law requires “keeping records,” the market demands “proving safety through data.” An increasing number of companies are meeting both requirements simultaneously, and this gap will have a decisive impact on future bidding, contracting, and evaluations.
Check how many of the following five items your company is definitely complying with.
| No. | Check Item | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Are DTGs installed on allcompany vehicles, and are they functioning properly? | ⬜ |
| 2 | Are driving record data systematically retained for at least 6 months? | ⬜ |
| 3 | Are eTAS submissions for vehicles subject to regular reporting obligations being made without omission? | ⬜ |
| 4 | Is DTG data being utilized for driver safety management and the identification of risky driving? | ⬜ |
| 5 | In the event of an accident, is it possible to immediately extract the DTG data from just before the accident? | ⬜ |
If you answered “Yes” to fewer than 3 questions, it is highly likely that your compliance with DTG requirements is merely superficial. Compliance with these requirements also serves as a safeguard for your company in the event of an accident.
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This article is intended to provide general information. Specific obligations and penalty standards may vary depending on the vehicle type and the local government with jurisdiction. For accurate details, please contact the Korea Transportation Safety Authority or your local government.