To date, more than 100,000 drivers of heavy trucks have participated in Scania Driver Competitions, making it the world’s largest truck driver competition and training event.

This year over 45.000 young drivers from 27 countries on five continents are expected to compete to become the world’s best truck driver.

National rounds and the final competition will include theoretical tests on road safety regulations, and practical tests on vehicle inspection, fuel-efficient driving and safe manoeuvring. The winner will be offered a brand new truck from Scania.

The IRU Road Transport Indices, which allow the comparison of GDP growth, road freight transport volumes and new vehicle registrations in 58 countries, forecast that the OECD and EU countries will be confronted with a considerable slow down of economic growth and transport activities after a year of feeble economic growth.

IRU Head of Sustainable Development, Jens Hügel highlighted that “when comparing the 2010 and 2011 figures, BRIC countries** have outperformed OECD countries in terms of growth in tonnes transported and will continue doing so in 2012. In fact, transport operators from BRIC countries transported 7.7% more goods in 2011, whereas transport operators in the OECD and EU transported only 1.7% and 1.6% respectively more transport volume.”

The 2012 forecast for OECD and EU countries shows that growth in transport volume will slow down to 0.9% and 0.8% respectively, before finally stagnating in the 3rd and 4th quarters. New vehicle registrations for the first 2 quarters of 2012 will increase for the OECD and EU by 0.9% and 0.7%, before equally coming to a hold in the second half of the year.

Mr Hügel added, “After a modest recovery in OECD countries in 2011, uncertainties will increase and the current financial turmoil will again impact the real economy. There are many parallels to the 2008 economic crisis situation as well as early signs that the OECD and EU are heading for a double dip recession. However, this new recession is not unavoidable. There are political options to prevent it and it is imperative to learn from how BRIC countries coped with the last crisis.”

The fact that BRIC countries are outperforming OECD and EU countries results from their understanding that both systemic innovation and major investment in production tools, including in small and medium-sized enterprises that provide 85% of jobs, such as road transport companies, are instrumental in expediting real economic growth.

In order to avoid a new recession and restore sustainable economic growth in 2012, governments should recognise, as do BRIC countries, that road transport is a non-subsidised production tool, which interconnects all businesses in all regions, to all world markets with its high quality and unique door-to-door services, and should thus be promoted and further facilitated.

The Conference will feature a diverse panel of speakers including IRU President, Janusz Lacny, and high-level representatives from EU institutions, including the EC Vice-President and Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas, as well as the EU Transport Council President and Danish Minister for Transport, Henrik Dam Kristensen.

The Conference will bring together over 400 political, transport and trade leaders from EU Member States around potential solutions, challenges and opportunities to further green road transport through innovation such as the European Modular Concept, doubling the use of collective passenger transport and the IRU strategy to achieve sustainable development, in the framework of the EU objectives and actions as defined in the EC transport White Paper.

This year, the IRU’s traditional Spring Cocktail will immediately follow the Conference to provide a dynamic and spontaneous environment to allow participants to network and continue the dialogue on which solutions could prove to be most effective in achieving better rather than more road transport.

It will also provide decision-makers and the media with weekly updated in-depth information on fuel and oil prices.

In addition to providing current fuel prices per country, the new IRU application now also contains historical data, allows for a dynamic comparison of fuel prices between Euro zone countries and displays comparative information between fuel price and crude oil fluctuations since 2005.

The IRU stressed that law enforcement agencies should provide crime hot-spot locations to enable more efficient policing. Moreover, the IRU reiterated its call on authorities to provide data on the location of secure parking areas and urged parking area owners to join the IRU TRANSPark service and engage in security level assessments (LABEL), as an effective measure to eliminate black market for stolen goods.

Cargo crime represents a significant threat in terms of security and financial stability, with one in six Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) drivers being attacked within the last five years and an estimated 15 billion euros being stolen annually.

From now on, TIR transport operators using the IRU TIR-EPD application will be able to submit electronic pre-declarations, free of charge, to Serbian Customs authorities and will benefit from shorter waiting times at borders, thus facilitating and securing trade and international road transport in the Balkan region.

This new development brings the geographical coverage of the IRU TIR-EPD to 19 countries.

The next Symposium of Lawyers will be held on February 24 2012 in Geneva. The IRU Symposium will bring together lawyers, academics, insurers, road transport operators and representatives of governments as well as international organisations that specialise in trade, logistics, transport and insurance issues to review contractual relations and increasing liabilities in road transport.

Leading road transport law practitioners and academics from across the globe will discuss the significant changes to the economic, legal and contractual environment for road transport operators that occurred over the past decade, including:

· the new legal framework and increasingly complex regulations;

· the rise of passenger rights in road transport law;

· extended liabilities and guarantees for the transport of goods by road; and,

· general conditions for the international transport of passengers and goods by road.

National case studies on evidence and management of the increasing liability of road carriers will also be presented in order to provide a practical overview and analysis of the changing legal environment for road transport operators, as well as best practices for carriers to address such changes and remain competitive.

The IRU says the revision will further harmonise and simplify international road freight transport operation and assist goods transport operators in protecting their legal interests within their contractual relations, in light of the significant changes to the economic, legal and contractual environment for road transport operators that occurred over the past ten years.

The President of the IRU’s Commission on Legal Affairs, Prof. Isabelle Bon-Garcin, stressed, “Through the IRU General Conditions and Outline Agreements, goods road transport operators and their clients will have at their disposal easy-to-use tools that will increase transparency and certainty in their contractual relations.”

The new General Conditions include provisions related to new security regulations deriving from the implementation of the WCO SAFE Framework of Standards, such as requirements relating to Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) status, as well as the increasing use of electronic consignment notes and electronic communications to submit customs declarations.

The General Conditions also incorporate the principle of passing on to the client the variable costs, such as fuel, road taxes and tolls. For increased transparency, the General Conditions provide a cost estimate template listing the services included, and provide for additional services not initially foreseen.

Furthermore, the IRU’s Goods Transport Council approved Guidelines on insurance matters to assist road transport operators in their negotiations with insurance companies to prevent a lack of coverage, overlapping insurance coverage, as well as to better address exceptional risks and situations.

The President of IRU Goods Transport Council, Pere Padrosa, concluded, “in this difficult economic climate, the use of the revised IRU General Conditions and Outline Agreements as well as the IRU Revised set of Guidelines will help road transport operators better protect their legal and financial interests and, as such, contribute to the sustainability and profitability of their businesses”.

“I am truly delighted and deeply honoured that my peers unanimously decided to extend my mandate as IRU President especially now that new regions of the world are scrambling as never before to benefit from the IRU’s more than 60 years of experience and unique know how… New and reinforced partnerships in Africa, in the Americas, in the Middle East and the Far East, all point to the IRU’s remit becoming truly global as it can offer effective and tangible economic remedies to all these regions,” Janusz Lacny stated.

Mr Lacny enjoys a distinguished career in road transport, which started in 1991 when he became an international haulier, establishing his own transport company “JMJ-TRANS”, which he extended to include forwarding activities.

A Professor with a Ph.D. Degree in telecommunications and computer communication systems, he created in 2004 the Department of Logistics and Transport of the University of Economy in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Mr Lacny has been a member of the Association of International Road Hauliers (ZMPD) in Poland since 1995, and was elected President in 1999 and became Secretary General in 2006 and then Vice President 2008. In 2000 he became the Chairman of the Advisory Committee to the Minister of Transport and then the Minister of Infrastructure in Poland. Since 2001 he has also published more than 20 scientific papers on road transport.

Following the FTA’s lead, IRU has urged European Commissioners to rethink proposals to harmonise height limits for single-deck trailers, which, industry argues, would harm industry, increase lorry miles and fly in the face of carbon reduction aims.

James Hookham, FTA’s Managing Director of Policy and Communications, said: “IRU’s support shows that the loss of a national trailer height exemption is not just a UK issue. Far from it, the estimated cost of harmonising trailer heights in the way being proposed would amount to around €800 million every year for those affected; an additional cost that Europe could certainly do without right now.

“We have worked hard to influence the Department for Transport, MEPs and Commission officials aware of the efficiencies and carbon savings achieved in the UK through the use of ‘high-cube’ and double deck trailers and this ‘harmonisation at all costs’ attitude must be abandoned immediately.”

The IRU stressed that beating tachograph fraud is a top priority for the road transport industry and that the current revision of the EU Tachograph Regulation should improve the security of the device in the interests of fair competition, road safety, and good working conditions, but with proportionate, cost-efficient and effective measures.

The IRU also highlighted that the device should also provide better support to drivers and companies in carrying out their duties.

New developments notably include an alert system, user support and the current geographical scope of TIR-EPD implementation, as well as an RSS feed so that users can remain constantly up-to-date with the latest TIR-EPD news and important alerts.

The IRU TIR-EPD application allows TIR Carnet Holders to comply, free of charge, with the EU NCTS/TIR and EORI Regulations which entered into force in 2009, as well as with the new EU security requirements, which entered into force on 1 January 2011, by submitting TIR Electronic Pre-Declarations to Customs offices of entry/departure in a simple, standardised way.The IRU TIR-EPD is also fully compliant with the World Customs Organisation’s Framework of Standards.

Check out the new web sect here:

On the back of European Commission (EC) proposals to amend the current EU Tachograph Regulation (3821/85/EC), the IRU is stressing that beating tachograph fraud is essential for the future sustainability of road transport services.

The IRU says the EC is relying too much on increasingly complex and costly technology, such as compulsory satellite positioning, which does not automatically deliver the required security results, and does not reduce the growing administrative burdens hampering efficient and safer road transport.

President of the IRU Commission on Social Affairs, Georges Causse, said: ‘’Without a tamper proof tachograph, we cannot achieve the safety and efficiency objectives which the digital tachograph was meant to deliver. Moreover, the lack of effective enforcement distorts competition in the single market for the vast majority of transport operators who work hard to drive the EU economy and abide by the law. The EC should thus concentrate its efforts on targeting the small minority of operators who break the rules and tamper with the tachograph in order to eliminate the risks they pose to road safety.”

The IRU strongly opposes the compulsory fitting of every device with satellite positioning as it will fail to make the digital tachograph tamper proof. “If the will and capability exists to manipulate the digital tachograph, the same defrauders will not hesitate to block a satellite signal. The switch from analogue to digital brought about more complex technology, yet did not deliver security. More complex and costly technology will not stop determined rule breakers but rather more targeted enforcement and tougher sanctions for those found guilty of tachograph fraud will” Georges Causse argued.

IRU Head of Social Affairs, Damian Viccars, added, “The industry has long called for measures to reduce the operational and administrative burdens caused by the digital tachograph. The IRU welcomes some of the steps made by the EC proposal in this direction.” These include the elimination of any need for paper letters of attestation to record drivers’ activities, creating a standardised ITS interface enabling the voluntary and cost efficient integration of the tachograph into an open telematics platform, and laying down a requirement that should lead to common training standards for control officers to increase the consistency and effectiveness of controls.

The integration has been brought about as a result of the fruitful cooperation between the IRU, the concerned Customs Administrations, and the IRU Member Associations – FEBETRA, AFTRI, BGL and AIST.

From now on, TIR transport operators using the IRU TIR-EPD application will be able to submit, free-of-charge, electronic pre-declarations including all the latest EU security requirements to Belgian, French, and German Customs authorities and will benefit from shorter waiting times at EU borders.

The IRU TIR-EPD is now operational in 15 countries.

These checklists aim to best equip drivers with sufficient knowledge to avoid accidents on the roads and be prepared in emergency situations to save lives.

These checklists are available free of charge for download through the IRU’s bookshop in English, French, and German.

The checklists can be downloaded by clicking on the following link:

The IRU says it shares the European Commission’s goal but not methods of achieving a resource efficient EU transport system, laid down in its Roadmap towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system.

The President of the IRU EU Goods Transport Liaison Committee, Alexander Sakkers, declared: “The road transport industry is fully committed to work with all other modes, the EU institutions, national governments, as well as vehicle and component manufacturers to further reduce its environmental footprint and to implement the co-modality principle introduced in 2006. However, the IRU strongly regrets the European Commission’s choice to promote a forced modal shift to other modes such as rail – which are simply not up to that task – despite previous recommendations of the European Parliament not to do so. The road transport industry therefore opposes increases in taxes, duties and charges, aimed solely at road freight transport, which will be used to cross-subsidise other transport modes, without any economic, environmental or social benefit.”

Promoting a forced modal shift policy for freight transport is misguided and will lead to a continued uni-modal approach instead of creating a resource efficient integrated transport system making each mode greener and more efficient. It should be noted that publicly-owned railway holdings, which are also the largest road hauliers in Europe, cannot even shift the goods they carry themselves from road to rail! Resource efficient co-modality should be the target, but it cannot be achieved without the road transport sector.

A realistic acceptance of commercial road transport’s irreplaceable role in any competitive mobility chain and economy should lead to the identification of more concrete measures, based on the IRU’s 3i strategy for achieving sustainable development – innovation, incentives and infrastructure – to help make road transport even greener, as it provides and will continue to provide energy efficient transport solutions for short, medium and long distances, including beyond 300 km.

Moreover, EU transport’s sustainable future can only be realised through increased use of collective passenger transport. IRU Vice-President and President of the IRU Passenger Transport Council, Graham Smith, highlighted: “Buses and coaches offer an enormous, largely untapped potential to reduce CO2 emissions, remove congestion on roads and drastically reduce fatalities. It is essential that the industry’s targets to double the use of bus and coach transport and make better use of taxi services, are fully supported both politically and financially through the actions outlined in the White Paper, as this is the only way to effectively foster change, as advocated by the Smart Move campaign.”

The IRU trusts that the European Parliament and Council will critically assess the Commission proposals and bring some realism back into the future policies and actions foreseen by the White Paper. Following the actions of the White Paper as is, would penalise the EU economy and employment and waste yet another 10 years investing political and financial resources solely in modes that have already proven unable to take up the current and future EU transport challenges.

The IRU is ready, jointly with the European Parliament, EU Member States and the European Commission, to come up with concrete, effective proposals to ensure the continued core contribution of the commercial road passenger and goods transport sector to a competitive and resource efficient EU transport system.

IRU Secretary General, Martin Marmy, explained, “We will achieve this by working together towards establishing common approaches, harmonised legal interpretations, efficient enforcement procedures and improved training and education.”

Addressing the guests, Member of the Executive Committee of ECR, Danny Drooghenbroodt, and TISPOL Director, Ad Hellemons, both highlighted that although the road transport sector and enforcement organisations have different roles and responsibilities, they pursue the same objective of achieving a safe and sustainable road transport, healthy and professional road transport companies working in a fair competition climate, as well as competent and skilled employees who are a key factor in respecting the rules.

All parties praised this new public private partnership as a prerequisite for good results, stressing that this declaration is the beginning of a new era of cooperation and listening to each other to perform better than when each actor operates on its own.

This new EU regulation imposes the electronic submission of security summary declarations for any goods entering or leaving the EU territory through the submission of an Entry or Exit Summary Declaration (ENS / EXS), unless the goods are covered by a Customs declaration that contains the required security data. When using the enhanced IRU TIR-EPD application, there is therefore no need to lodge an ENS / EXS as it can now also include the required security data. The TIR transit declaration containing the security data or the ENS / EXS Summary Declaration must be lodged at least one hour before the truck arrives at the Customs office.

TIR Carnet Holders may use the IRU TIR-EPD application through their usual preferred interface and in the language of their choice, to lodge the required TIR and Security data in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Slovakia (with other countries to join soon) where the enhancement was realised in partnership with the respective customs authorities.

The IRU today awarded the IRU Grand Prix d’Honneur to Kremena Todorava, Dobrin Ivanov and Krum Krumov from the Bulgarian coach company, BIOMET, as an international recognition by the entire road transport industry for their outstanding act of courage and bravery performed in the course of their duty.

In January 2009, a coach departing from Sofia with 37 passengers onboard was hijacked by an armed man, who claimed that he had planted a bomb in the luggage compartment. Risking their own lives, the coach crew diverted the hijacker’s attention to alert the coach company’s main office, explaining within seconds that the coach had been taken hostage by an armed man who was threatening to kill passengers.

The situation escalated when the coach stopped at a fuel station near the village of Sopot, where the hijacker demanded to talk to the media while the Police Special Forces were positioning themselves in the vicinity of the coach, in the midst of ongoing threats from the hostage-taker causing panic amongst passengers. In this oppressive situation, the coach crew, once again acted courageously by calming the passengers down, while facilitating negotiations between the hostage-taker and the police. Finally, after 4 arduous hours of discussion, the hostage-taker surrendered, and all passengers were released unharmed.

Awarding the Grand Prix d’Honneur, IRU President, Janusz Lacny, said, “In our modern society, ordinary people still find themselves in extraordinary situations and perform heroic acts. Thanks to Mrs Todorava’s, Mr Ivanov’s and Mr Krumov’s high level of professionalism and courageous intervention, the hijacking of their coach was brought to an end without any casualties among the passengers or crew. The IRU salutes these three heroes of the road.”

Mrs Todorava, Mr Ivanov and Mr Krumov are citizens of the Republic of Bulgaria and work for the Bulgarian coach company BIOMET, a member of the Association of the Bulgarian Enterprises for International Road Transport and the Roads (AEBTRI), the IRU Bulgarian Member Association.

Opening the historic conference, IRU President, Janusz Lacny said “I am certain that this event will increase the required cooperation between the road transport industry represented by the IRU and the European Union Member States and the EU Institutions. It is obvious that it is only through cooperation and a true public private partnership that we will be able to have more efficient, safe, and sustainable road transport for the future…By working together for a better future we can overcome the present economic crisis and financial difficulties in the various EU Member states and realise all of our common economic, social, and environmental objectives”.

The fruitful Ministerial meeting, held in parallel to the conference, resulted in the signing of a Ministerial Declaration to coordinate efforts to: work in partnership with the commercial road transport industry; achieve further at source reductions of its environmental footprint; coordinate national and regional transport policies to develop and maintain high quality infrastructure while aiming to remove existing barriers to the free movement of people and goods; integrate the different transport modes into a highly efficient and competitive European transport system, pursue a well balanced social policy for commercial road transport; and promote harmonised and business friendly enforcement of all EU road transport rules.

Fully in line with the Ministerial Declaration, Conference participants adopted a Declaration concluding that constructive cooperation in public-private partnerships should allow for the implementation of: transport policies that enable market-driven free modal choice; a well directed and funded infrastructure policy; more secure commercial road transport through the provision of information about the location of secure parking areas; a single EU-wide enforcement space to fight crime; innovative technologies and practices as well as vocational training; the Smart Move campaign which aims to double the use of bus and coach transport.

On this occasion, the IRU also awarded Etienne Schouppe, Secretary of State for Mobility, Kingdom of Belgium and host of the Conference, the IRU Order of Merit in recognition of his exceptional work in promoting cooperation between EU Governments and the national and international road transport industry and renewed its commitment to road safety in the near- and long-term future by resigning the European Road Safety Charter.

The IRU says the resolution is a constructive step towards identifying the location of existing secure TPAs and increasing their number along major highways. This important measure is urgently needed due to increasing crime on the road, where 1 in 6 drivers risks being attacked, and the stringent driving and rest time regulations.

The Council Resolution calls on road haulage industry associations, and in particular the IRU, to play an active role in the implementation of the proposed secure TPA model, including possible certification processes and distributing information on secure parking areas to truck drivers.

The IRU and ITF have pledged to jointly operate, maintain and further develop LABEL in a sustainable format through the TRANSPark web-based platform developed by the two organisations to provide online information on TPAs’ availability, location and parking site facilities in 40 countries.

Furthermore, the IRU and ITF have emphasised the pressing need for the establishment of more secure TPAs and the dissemination of information on the location of existing secure parking areas in order to greatly reduce security risks for all actors involved in commercial road transport.

IRU Head of Goods Transport & Facilitation, Peter Krausz, said: “Implementing the output of the LABEL project jointly with the ITF is a perfect example of constructive public-private partnership, whereby the interests of industry and governments coincide in identifying the location of parking areas and developing more secure TPAs in practically all EU Member States in order to increase driver, vehicle and cargo security as well as improve basic conditions for observing strict social rules on driving and rest times of professional drivers.”

In order to guarantee a stable framework for such activities, the IRU and the ITF will jointly develop an implementation scheme, including International and National TPA Assessment Committees, as well as TRANSPark that beyond its present e-registration and search tools, would host new facilities such as the labelling scheme.

IRU President, Janusz Lacny, highlighted, “Over the past 20 years, the road transport industry focused on dramatically reducing its toxic emissions by up to 98%. The sector is now standing up to the remaining challenge of CO2 emissions and has proactively adopted the IRU’s “30-by-30 Resolution”, which is a pledge from the entire road transport industry worldwide to cut its CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030.”

Participants emphasised that in today’s globalised economy, overall transport accounts for 30% of CO2 emissions whereas the commercial road transport industry is only responsible for 3% of total CO2 emissions – as put forward by the UNFCCC in 2006 – and that in most cases, road transport presents a lower environmental footprint than other modes of transport in equivalent door-to-door service.

Klaus Bräunig, Managing Director of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), who opened the event, said: “The manufacturers are working intensively on reducing CO2 output. They are willing to set themselves ambitious targets. But these targets must not overburden the industry and its capabilities, and they must not make vehicles so expensive that customers can no longer afford them. That would preclude fleet renewal, with all the negative effects that would have on the environment.” Bräunig pointed out that the CO2 emissions from commercial vehicles, unlike those from passenger cars, cannot be reduced to a simple average value, but depend on the use to which the vehicle is put, its loading volume, loading weight and operational profile. “For these reasons, even with all its appropriate climate-policy ambition, the European Commission should also always keep an eye firmly on the economic and technical realities.”

Conference participants concluded that governments should

* Aim at improving road infrastructure and policies to effectively reduce fuel consumption, and thus CO2 emissions;

* Promote alternative and sustainable energies/fuel sources for lighter commercial vehicles; and

* Develop international harmonised standards to allow the broadest possible use of the Modular Concept (longer vehicle combinations), which is the most effective solution to boost multimodal transport while considerably reducing CO2 emissions from road transport.

During four days, over 250 nationally-qualified professionals from 15 countries took theoretical and practical tests focused on driver safety skills including maneuvering, safe loading and securing, eco-driving and first aid.

This event effectively demonstrated the need for road transport professional training for all drivers to increase road safety worldwide. Each participant received an IRU Academy-UICR diploma and became ambassador of road safety and champion of the road.

Every two years the UICR organises a world championship in safety driving for trucks and buses. In order to become a world champion various theoretical and practical tasks have to be solved with as few errors as possible.

The aim of the World Cup is the training of professional drivers in safety driving, economic driving and cargo securing.

The UICR believes that trained drivers have better opportunities in professional life and improve the general road safety significantly. To participate at the UICR world championship drivers must regularly pass national championships.

Road charges, when including excessive external costs, can reach up to €436 billion per year, yet without generating any effective action aimed at removing the externalities by earmarking the charges to effectively reduce road transport’s environmental impact, the study concludes.

ProgTrans has presented the results of a study on the economic impact of the internalisation of external costs on individual EU Member States and the European road haulage industry, which reveals that:

· in 2009, the road haulage industry already paid 15 billion euro in road user charges;

· costs generated by the internalisation of the external costs would be 5 to 414 billion euro per year, depending on the year and charging scenario;

· adding the internalisation of external costs to current road user charges would result in a total burden on the EU economy of 20 to 436 billion euro per year.

ProgTrans calculated these figures by simulating road user charges levied by all EU Member States, based on real transport flows; transport forecasts for 2020 and 2030; and various European Commission scenarios for the internalisation of external costs*

IRU EU Goods Transport Liaison Committee President, Alexander Sakkers, commented: “The ProgTrans study further questions the cost-benefit analysis of the European Commission proposal revising the Eurovignette Directive. It highlights major economic pitfalls and flagrant discrimination towards the road freight transport sector, which today ensures over 90% in value of all trade distribution in the EU and which already pays for close to 100% of its externalities, through existing road user charges, taxes and duties.”

When balancing each Member State’s revenues collected from national and foreign hauliers against related costs for their national trade**, the ProgTrans study further reveals that:

· only two countries – France and Germany – would profit from the internalisation of external costs regardless of the study year and scenario;

· 16 countries would face serious losses of national income;

· the remaining 9 countries would experience various outcomes, yet with overall quite large losses of national income in most years and scenarios.

Unlike what is commonly believed, the vast majority of EU Member States will suffer huge losses in their national budgets, not to mention the additional costs imposed on the economy as a whole, which would lead to a smaller tax base. In contrast, Germany and France, as the only profiting countries, would be able to provide a general tax rebate of up to 43 billion Euros.

“It is simply unacceptable that such a proposal could pass without considering the real impacts on the European economy as a whole and at national level. Moreover, is it worth keeping a proposal which will clearly not solve the externalities caused by all transport modes, including rail, maritime, in-land waterways and air? Rather, current debates in the Council of Ministers should focus on earmarking revenues stemming from current charges, taxes and duties paid by the various modes to effectively remove, or at least significantly reduce their respective externalities,” Alexander Sakkers concluded.

The agreement notably includes the setting of criteria for security and service quality levels, public display of LABEL test audits of TPAs and the support from IRU and ITF to ensure the sustainability of LABEL TPA standards and certification, involving all competent governmental and non-governmental authorities, as well as business partners at national and international levels.

All partners will be encouraged to enter TPAs location and available services into TRANSPark, a web-based application jointly developed by the IRU and ITF to help drivers / operators to identify and locate safe parking areas best suited for their needs along their routes.

Further to the launch of the IRU TIR electronic pre-declaration system, (IRU TIR-EPD) in both Latvia and Lithuania, it is now possible for all TIR Carnet holders to process their TIR data in advance and free-of-charge, via the internet, from 11 EU countries located along the eastern border (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia).

IRU Head of TIR Department, Marek Retelski, said, “This is a major achievement to further reinforce the computerisation and security of the TIR System worldwide, in the interest of the transport industry, customs authorities, trade and the end customer. Indeed, IRU TIR-EPD not only saves time and money but it provides customs authorities with a sound risk-management tool, as they receive all the necessary data far in advance of TIR operations.”

As a result of intensive technical cooperation between the IRU, its national Member associations Latvijas Auto and LINAVA, as well as competent authorities of Latvia and Lithuania, the IRU TIR-EPD was successfully launched in these two additional countries, which are not only important users of the TIR System but are also neighbouring Belarus and the Russian Federation, two major TIR Contracting Parties outside the EU.

“We can only congratulate the Latvian and Lithuanian customs for their role in this achievement and encourage other Contracting Parties within or outside of the EU to join the IRU TIR-EPD,” Marek Retelski added.

The IRU TIR-EPD application allows road transport companies to save considerable amounts of time and money at border-crossings by rapidly providing all TIR data, free-of charge through a user-friendly internet platform to the relevant customs office, thus avoiding the very expensive services of intermediaries at the border.

The IRU TIR-EPD also helps authorities implement the International Convention on the Harmonization of Frontier Controls of Goods, reducing border waiting times by removing the necessity to process customs clearance at border-crossing points.

The IRU is currently working closely with numerous other countries to implement the TIR-EPD, including Belarus, France, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

The seminar will focus on the effects of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea (Rotterdam Rules) and the projected EU Single Transport Document on the road transport sector, particularly in relation to the use of CMR Consignment Note.

The IRU Seminar will bring together legal experts from IRU member associations, members of the IRU Legal Assistance Network, lawyers, as well as transport operators, forwarders, shippers, insurers, academics, logistics and authority representatives to discuss the implementation and other contractual conditions of these various contractual rules, as they may have significant consequences on the standard liability for international road freight transport operations.

IRU Head of Legal Affairs, Carine Rathier, commented “The lack of harmonised rules regulating the liability of the carrier makes it very difficult for transport operators to accurately estimate the risks implied by multimodal transport operations. In addition to the CMR Convention of direct relevance for road freight transport, UNCITRAL’s creation of the Rotterdam Rules, signed by 21 States to date and the European Commission’s intention to create a Single Transport Document will make the situation even more complex.”

Knowing that there are many factors, which contribute to an accident and knowing that those factors are interlinked, the aim of the study was to identify the main causes of accidents involving trucks.

The study shows that human error is the main cause of 85.2 per cent of the studied cases. However, out of those 85.2 per cent, 75 per cent were caused by other road users and only 25 per cent by the truck driver.

In-depth analysis shows that when the human being caused the accident, non-adapted speed, failure to observe intersection rules and improper maneuvering when changing lanes were the main cause.

Truck load and fatigue played only a minor role. One of the concluding recommendations was that improving driver training and upgrading driving school programmes are key to improve road safety.

The IRU says the decision will threaten EU jobs and entrepreneurial spirit contradicting the objectives of the Lisbon agenda.

The President of the IRU’s EU Goods Transport Liaison Committee, Alexander Sakkers, said: “This vote by the EU Parliament is a triumph of dogmatism over pragmatism and completely disregards what the road sector actually needs. Rejecting the Commission proposal will not only result in lost jobs and competitiveness in road transport, but will create a precedent to extend such rules to the self employed in other sectors too. The competitiveness of the whole European economy is therefore at risk. Despite the rejection by Parliament today we urge the Commission to come forward with a new proposal that will still seek to exempt true self employed entrepreneurs from these rules.’’

“This negative vote is also due to false claims and misinformation about the working hours of those not covered by the Directive, as well as faulty arguments that working time rules are vital for road safety, which is simply not the case, as an extremely extensive road safety regulatory framework already exists for commercial vehicle drivers whether self employed or not.”