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.”

On the occasion of the Seminar on Road Transport organised by IRU Spanish Member Association ASTIC, the President of the IRU’s Commission on Social Affairs, Georges Causse presented the IRU’s priorities.

Addressing the Spanish hauliers, Causse stressed, “the IRU will continue to listen carefully to all its members and to work for a well balanced, well enforced framework of social rules to maintain road safety and fair competition while enabling the road transport industry to deploy its workforce efficiently and with the necessary skills required by the market.”

The IRUS says that the road transport industry has already reduced its toxic emissions by up to 97 per cent over the past 20 years.

IRU Head of Technical Affairs, Jacques Marmy, called upon governments to “strive, in principle, for globally harmonised emission standards and to develop a global certification procedure for CO2 emissions of heavy commercial vehicles.”

IRU President, Janusz Lacny, stressed: “co-modality, together with ITS applications and the Modular Concept, is a perfect demonstration of how multi-aspect innovation can create better, rather than more transport. The IRU is committed to cooperate with all relevant stakeholders and decision-makers to reap, through appropriate legislation and investments, the maximum benefit of innovative technologies, techniques and practices.”

BGL Secretary General, Prof. Dr Karlheinz Schmidt, added: “The optimisation of the payload, through, allows for a more efficient use of existing loading units by using longer vehicle combinations where possible, and shorter combinations when necessary. The standardised Modular Concept is an excellent example of how to increase, through innovation, not only co-modality but also partnerships between all transport modes, and to create an effective, integrated transport system.”

Speaking for the entire road transport industry, IRU President went on to say that : “We have clear expectations from governments who participate at the ITF meeting, as it is high time to recognise the vital role of road transport as key production tool, ensuring the competitiveness and sustainable economic development of every business in every country and driving economic growth and social welfare, and to standardise the silhouette and all the elements of the innovative Modular Concept, to ensure its successful national and cross-border co-modal use as the solution to promote multimodal transport.”

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Following the publication of the latest road safety figures, which indicate a decrease of nearly 10% in road fatalities in 2009 in the 52 member countries of the International Transport Forum, the IRU stresses that every accident is one accident too many. This is why despite these positive figures the IRU will pursue the efforts of the commercial road transport industry to improve road safety.

IRU President, Janusz Lacny, said: “The road transport industry is committed to improving road safety and avoiding human suffering caused by accidents and thus considers accident prevention as a key priority for the IRU, its Members and any road transport operator.”

“As confirmed by the ITF data, much has been achieved, but better results are needed. The IRU has therefore recently allocated major funding to further improve commercial road transport safety, provided that this important financial commitment is matched by credible partners or by the international donor community to jointly achieve this key IRU objective”, Mr Lacny continued.

In this respect, IRU Head of Sustainable Development, Jens Hügel, confirmed: “The IRU General Assembly recently adopted a Resolution, fully supporting the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, which underlines that IRU’s road safety objective can be further achieved by:

· Identifying the main causes of accidents involving heavy commercial vehicles by supporting accident causation studies which apply the scientific, widely accepted and internationally benchmarked ETAC methodology to effectively target the main causes of accidents;

· Supporting effective, harmonised and internationally recognised standards and programmes for vocational training of road transport professionals, which have been developed by the IRU Academy, as some 85% of accidents are caused by human error. Appropriate training thus clearly appears as the most effective way to further reduce road accidents by targeting their principle cause; and

· Introducing proven effective, innovative active and passive safety systems, such as lane departure warning systems, advanced emergency braking systems and electronic stability programmes.

Underlying the importance of supporting the Commission’s proposal to revise the Directive, IRU Head of Social Affairs, Damian Viccars, stressed that by rejecting the Commission’s proposal, important measures improving the enforcement of the Directive in general and cracking down on fake self-employment, could be lost.

MEPs were therefore encouraged to support the European Commission’s proposals to define night work in line with other working time legislation. MEPs must thus imperatively rectify this situation to avoid the consequent unemployment of self-employed drivers and stop using road safety as a fallacious argument for including self-employed drivers in the scope of the Working Time Directive.

[private]The strategy seeks to achieve the long-term objective of reducing CO2 emissions from road transport by promoting research into new vehicle technology and alternative fuels, setting common standards for vehicles and incentivising the market take-up of the latest and cleanest technologies, along with transition measures allowing to avoid an accelerated depreciation of existing vehicles and systems.

IRU General Delegate to the EU, Michael Nielsen, commented: “The recognition by the EU Commission that heavy duty vehicles will have to rely on the internal combustion engine and fossil fuels for the coming decades is a positive and pragmatic development.

This supports the IRU’s call for the establishment of sustainable energy policies that reserve the use of fossil fuel to industry sectors for which no viable alternative currently exists, such as heavy duty road transport. However, it is crucial to expedite the search for alternative technologies and fuels, including for long-distance commercial road transport operations, to help further reduce CO2 emissions. The IRU is committed to working closely with the EU Commission and all other stakeholders, to effectively implement this new European strategy.” [/private]

IRU General Delegate to the EU, Michael Nielsen, said, “An ambitious EU transport policy programme for the next decade and beyond must address global challenges that significantly impact the economic growth and competitiveness of the EU, bearing in mind that road transport will remain the key enabler of current and future travel and logistics supply chains, interconnecting all other modes for the benefit of European citizens, consumers and businesses.” He added that there is no grounds in today’s economy and European single market for providing financial support to individual transport modes to force modal shift, which has proven to work against sustainable and efficient transport services.”

The IRU welcomes the draft report of the EP rapporteur, Mathieu Grosch, on a sustainable future for transport and strongly supports MEPs’ amendments that:

· promote an efficient, safe and sustainable transport system to optimise the use of each individual mode and their interaction;

· promote co-modality, as opposed to forced modal shift in freight transport;

· promote collective passenger transport, in particular by bus, coach and taxi, and set the clear policy objective at EU level of doubling their use in the next decade;

· give priority to incentives over sanctions;

· promote the internalisation of external costs for all modes, whilst ensuring that all modes pay only the costs related to their own externalities and use of infrastructure, and that revenues collected are used to effectively reduce the externalities and improve the infrastructure ;

· set as an objective the completion of the internal market for all modes, the creation of a single EU enforcement area and the promotion of training;

· create a road transport agency to promote and further facilitate this sector vital for the EU economy and mobility;

· centralise EU resources into a dedicated transport fund, which could support the implementation of the future EU transport policy, provided that funds collected are clearly earmarked and used to improve conditions of the respective transport mode.

· support the ambitious target of reducing road fatalities and serious injuries by 40% by 2020 by targeting the main cause of accidents.

Following the European Parliament Employment and Social Affairs Committee’s rejection of the draft Bauer report advocating support for the Commission proposal to exclude self employed drivers from the Working Time Directive at EU level, the IRU urges MEPs to reverse this decision when the proposal comes to vote again in Plenary this June.

The IRU strongly supports the exclusion at EU level of self employed drivers from the scope of the Directive, while supporting the possibility for Member States to apply the Directive’s provision to such drivers if considered necessary after thorough consultation with the industry.

The President of the IRU’s EU Goods Transport Liaison Committee, Alexander Sakkers, stressed: “The rationale of working time legislation is to ensure that salaried workers are not forced to work more than they wish to. Since this is irrelevant for independent owner drivers, the road safety argument has been misused by some to encourage their inclusion at EU level. This is entirely unjustified, considering the extensive EU regulatory framework focusing on road safety. The EP Committee has ignored that EU Driving and Rest Time Rules and the Tachograph Regulation apply to all drivers irrespective of their employment status and are thus the true safeguards of road safety in the sector. This is something I will bring forward in the meeting the IRU will have with Vice President Kallas on the 29 April.”

Moreover, by rejecting the Commission proposal, important measures improving the enforcement of the Directive in general and cracking down on fake self employment in particular, could be lost. The IRU also urges MEPS to support the European Commission’s proposals that bring the definition of night work in line with other working time legislation.

MEPs should rectifiy this situation to avoid the subsequent massive unemployment of self employed drivers and stop using road safety as a fallacious argument for including self employed drivers in the scope of the Working Time Directive.

The MoU covers the integration of new electronic TIR features, namely the TIR-Electronic Pre-Declaration (TIR-EPD) and the Real Time SafeTIR (RTS), into the UNCTAD ASYCUDA software program. UNCTAD will subsequently provide technical assistance and training to the Customs Administrations in the Republic of Moldova and Georgia in piloting the ASYCUDA/TIR system, while the IRU will assist the UNCTAD field activities in the two pilot countries.

The MoU also includes cooperation in rolling-out the ASYCUDA/TIR system in other ASYCUDA-user countries, as well as promoting best practices of ASYCUDA and TIR. UNCTAD and IRU will coordinate their related activities with European, Central Asian and other countries as well as with regional organisations such as EurAsEC, ECO, BSEC, LAS, etc. to raise Governments’, Customs Administrations’ and trade communities’ awareness of international customs standards and benefits of the ASYCUDA and TIR systems.

Such cooperation will be carried out through joint seminars, training events and projects on Customs and Customs transit. UNCTAD and IRU also agreed to a regular exchange of information relating to the ASYCUDA and TIR developments and to review issues pertaining to the integration and implementation of automated Customs transit systems at national, regional and global level.

IRU Secretary General, Martin Marmy, said: “These new synergies between UNCTAD’s ASYCUDA system and TIR electronic functionalities will help optimise Customs procedures and standards in beneficiary countries, while contributing to the geographical expansion of the TIR System in new countries and regions covered by ASYCUDA but not yet Contracting Parties to the TIR Convention, thus supporting and facilitating new trade and road transport flows.”

The Resolution calls for cooperation with national and international industry organisations, in order to effectively fight organised crime, since road networks have always been vulnerable and subject to such security threats.

A joint IRU-ITF survey on attacks on international drivers, conducted in more than 35 European, Balkan and Central-Asian countries, has shown that 1 in 6 drivers (17%) has suffered at least one attack in 5 years. 42% of the attacks took place in truck parking areas, 66% of which occurred between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am.

The survey estimated the total direct cost of these attacks extrapolated to the whole international driver population in Europe at more than € 7 billion, not including indirect expenses, the value of lost business opportunities or consequences of the human suffering.

The IRU Resolution thus calls upon competent authorities to urgently develop and implement political, legal and practical instruments to remedy this situation by:

· Applying all necessary prevention measures to fight criminal activities faced by drivers at national and international levels and put an end to the related human suffering and economic losses, notably by developing a network of secure parking areas and informing the IRU accordingly of their location;

* Encouraging transport operators to report each incident to the enforcement authorities and refer all occurrences of theft / assault to national and, when necessary, international jurisdictions, and effectively prosecute perpetrators of criminal acts;
* Strengthen the implementation and enforcement of international conventions, including the TIR Convention, as the best multilateral legal instrument to comply with the security requirements of the WCO SAFE Framework of Standards.

The IRU, the Transported Asset Protection Association, Europe Middle East and Africa (TAPA EMEA), a unique forum that unites global manufacturers, logistics providers, freight carriers, law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders engaged in the fight against transport crime, and EUROWATCH, specialising in police response to security incidents across more than 40 European countries as well as intelligence collection, have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) to jointly contribute to reducing losses incurred to the international supply chain stemming from criminal activity and security breaches.

The results of an IRU Survey on Attacks on International Drivers, conducted jointly with the International Transport Forum (ITF) in 2008 showed that 1 in 6 drivers has experienced at least one attack – directed towards him/herself, vehicle and/or cargo – over a 5-year period, at a direct cost of over 7 billion Euros and indirect losses of at least 15 billion Euros in Europe and some Central Asian states included in the scope of the survey.

The urgent need to relieve the human suffering and very significant economic losses caused by such organised crime has led the three organisations to reinforce their working relationship, all being strongly interested and involved in combating crime on the road.

Peter Krausz, IRU Head of Goods Transport, Peter Krausz, said “the IRU intends to develop a culture of reporting incidents such as attacks or thefts on the road and in parking areas, in order to set up a wide, reliable database in countries concerned to ultimately create relevant national jurisprudence for transport security. The objective is also to share knowledge with road transport operators and all other players in the industry, so that thoroughly verified information on criminal incidents and tendencies, identified by TAPA EMEA and EUROWATCH, can be made accessible to drivers and transport managers on the IRU TRANSPark web application, which allows registering and searching truck parking areas according to their location, security attributes and featured services.”

Thorsten Neumann, Chairman of TAPA, added: “TAPA EMEA’s Incident Information Service (IIS) constantly captures and shares data, enabling members to use the latest cargo crime intelligence to avoid incident ‘hotspots’, protect goods in transit and, if required, to report and trace stolen property. Furthermore, TAPA EMEA is engaged in developing an assessment scheme to verify the security level of truck parking areas. A closer cooperation with the IRU, which shares the same objectives as TAPA in the field of transport security, will be beneficial for all players.”

Mark Schwarz, Commercial Director of EUROWATCH, continued “EUROWATCH provides the transport industry with a way to contact local police instantly in over 40 countries when a crime occurs as well as systematically collecting intelligence on security incidents occurring in the supply chain, while the IRU carries out ad hoc targeted surveys on the same subject and offers an efficient channel to supply road transport industry stakeholders with relevant information. We look forward to contributing our knowledge and practical experience of supply chain crime to this exciting collaboration.”

The IRU supports an EU level exclusion from the Working Time Directive for self-employed drivers, while asserting Member States’ right to include them where needed and their obligation to crackdown on fake self-employment.

The President of the IRU Goods Transport Liaison Committee (CLTM) to the EU, Dr Alexander Sakkers, said ‘Two things should be remembered: first, strict safety standards for road transport are already applied to drivers of commercial vehicles via the EU Driving and Rest Time Rules Regulation, irrespective of their employment status. Second, roughly 67.4% of all road freight transport activities in the EU are performed at national level. Therefore, it makes sense to apply a general exclusion of self-employed owner drivers from the Directive at EU level, yet to maintain the possibility for individual EU Member States to assess their labour markets and decide whether to apply additional working time limits to such drivers registered on their territory’’.

Notwithstanding this necessary flexibility for genuine self-employed drivers, the IRU insists that those creating and accepting fake self-employment must be stopped from causing unacceptable damage to the road transport sector by circumventing their legal and financial responsibilities. They should be rooted out or forced to comply through much stronger national enforcement.

The IRU supports the Commission’s proposal of defining a period of ‘night work’ as being at least two hours work during the nationally defined ‘night time’ period, since it brings consistency with other working time legislation. MEPs should thus refrain from limiting the ability of Member States to define the ‘night-time’ period in accordance with national needs derived from geography or efficient traffic management strategies.

MEPs must also reject any attempt to extend the scope of the Directive to drivers of vehicles below 3.5 tonnes. This would be extremely premature and go well beyond the scope of the Commission proposal and impact assessment.

Addressing 200 students and faculty members of the Moscow Institute of Automobiles and Roads (MADI) at the Moscow State Technical University, the IRU Secretary General, Martin Marmy, said:“The major trends which will shape the future of road transport can be summarised by the need to find global solutions, to provide more quality in a more liberalised transport market.”

“The instruments to meet the new trends and challenges shall be based on increased cooperation between the public and private sector representing road transport, further complementarity between the various transport modes and ever greater professionalism in road transport,” Marmy stated.

Members from the CLTM also re-elected Florence Berthelot from the French Road Hauliers Association FNTR (Fédération Nationale des Transports Routiers) and Christian Labrot from the German Logistics Association BWVL (Bundesverband Wirtschaft, Verkehr und Logistik) as Vice-Presidents.

The Presidential Executive of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) has endorsed the goals of the UN Resolution on Road Safety by committing to allocate $2 million to the UN road safety implementation plan named “Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020”.

For the International Road Transport Union and all of its 180 Members in 74 countries on the 5 continents, road safety always has been, is and will remain a top priority issue. In fact, for every true professional every accident is one too many.

In its great efforts to further improve road safety, the IRU is committed to supporting the goals of the UN Resolution as well as the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. In this respect the IRU supports the UN Resolution objectives to broaden the geographic scope and the implementation of the road safety projects foreseen.

In order to achieve this goal, IRU deputy Secretary General, Umberto de Pretto, announced to the UN Road Safety Collaboration today that the IRU Presidential Executive has committed major funds to implement appropriate projects to effectively improve commercial road transport safety provided that this important commitment by the profession is matched by partners involved in road safety or by the donor community.

This IRU commitment perfectly reflects the IRU motto: “Working together for a better future”. The IRU, representing the road transport industry worldwide, is prepared to take its full responsibility in this priority issue. Indeed, it is the duty of everyone to assume fully day after day, their respective responsibilities for improving road safety. The IRU will remain at the disposal of its public and private partners to initiate cooperation on road transport industry projects which will effectively address the main causes of accidents involving commercial vehicles.

Over the last few weeks, the farmers’ strike has blocked roads and border crossing points in an often changing and chaotic pattern, making cargo, trucks and drivers idle at border crossing points for days. Regrettably, due to the strike action extending to other sectors of the Greek economy, there is no prospect that blockades will end soon.

The IRU has protested to the Greek Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks, Dimitris Reppas, against this unacceptable situation and has taken daily contact with the responsible services of the European Commission, pressing them to ensure the re-establishment of the freedom of transit across Greek borders and territory in accordance with EU law and international conventions.

During the opening ceremony of the 31st IRU World Congress, IRU President, Janusz Lacny, awarded Barthel Green the IRU Grand Prix d’Honneur as an international recognition by the entire profession of the outstanding act of courage he performed in November 2006.

While driving his vehicle in the City of Charleston (South Carolina, USA), Green noticed a school bus driving unusually slow in the centre lane. Pulling up his rig for a closer look, he discovered that the bus driver had passed out and that several children had grabbed the steering wheel and were attempting to steer the vehicle.

Green sped up his truck, passed the bus and pulled over. After exiting his vehicle, he ran alongside the school bus and opened the door to board the bus. He then managed to steer it safely off the road and called for help.

When asked how he was able to think of a solution so quickly, Green simply said: “I used to drive a bus and have been driving a truck for years. I knew all I needed to know to get this job done.”

Handing the award, Mr. Lacny stated, “In our modern society, ordinary people still find themselves in extraordinary situations and perform heroic acts. Thanks to Mr. Green’s immediate, professional and courageous intervention, the young children on the bus were saved. The IRU is proud to count such a man among the ranks of its member associations. With men like Mr. Green, our industry is worthily served and represented.”

Vice President of the IRU Commission on Social Affairs, Roxana Ilie, said: ”The crisis has hit the road transport sector hard in terms of company bankruptcies and job losses. Government measures to relieve companies have been sporadic at best and there is an urgent need for adequate industry actions to help keep the skilled personnel in the sector until the economy recovers. Every road transport company should implement strategic best practices to deal with this looming problem.”

Delegates acknowledged the risk of returning to previous driver shortages unless more efforts are made to improve the recruitment and retention of drivers and build a more sustainable workforce. These could include employers and employees routinely agreeing job development plans, setting down training needs and company expectations, which could be periodically reviewed.

Seminar participants stressed that image campaigns, such as the Danish initiative ‘Keeping Denmark Going’ were vital to provide potential drivers and the wider public with a more accurate perception of the contribution of road transport to the economy and society, as well as employment opportunities available to ambitious and well qualified drivers entering the sector.

President of the IRU Commission on Social Affairs, Georges Causse, stressed the importance of skills for both recruitment and retention of drivers: “A new recruitment and training culture based on the acquisition of skills must be developed within the road transport industry, to attract newcomers to the profession. Such a focus on skills is a win-win situation for companies and drivers alike because in a globalised economy, it does not matter whether a company is large or small, but to remain competitive it is the quality of the services that counts.  Nothing can improve quality like proper training, and nothing will help retain drivers like skills development enabling them to be the best in their field”.

Participants concluded that enhanced skills and training will also significantly contribute to achieving the industry’s goal of further improving road safety and reducing its carbon footprint through fuel-efficient driving, while providing genuine career development perspectives that will in turn raise the level of professional satisfaction and pride amongst drivers.

Professional competence today is a prerequisite for ensuring a competitive advantage to companies active on local and international markets. The IRU Academy thus helps to build this competence by harmonising training standards, incorporating international best practices and verifying, in an independent capacity, that these standards are in full compliance with international legal instruments and EU directives and regulations governing road transport.

CIECA President, Sonja Sporstøl, stressed “the key to ensuring that performance criteria are met and to improving road safety records is the development of common high-quality standards for training and testing. At European level, Directive 2003/59 EC was designed both to enhance road safety and improve the competence of professional drivers, which also reflect the core aims of CIECA. Moreover, across European borders, the continuous exchange of information between CIECA members and other parties allows for learning from each other and contributes to the creation of solid best practice examples.”

This IRU Academy Seminar highlighted the significant progress made on professional driver training throughout the world. However, the current lack of harmonisation between training programmes prevents quality training to display its full potential since policies and support measures implemented by national authorities too often vary from one country to another, resulting in major differences in both the number and nature of training standards. This causes significant problems for the industry’s workforce as it often prevents mutual recognition of credentials and conflicts with the very nature of international road transport operations.

Participants concluded that the collaboration of all actors involved in road transport professional competence is key to harmonise training standards, maximise driver competence and obtain mutual recognition.

CAS Members also re-elected Roxana Ilie from the National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania (UNTRR), and Steven Salmon from the Confederation of Passenger transport (CPT) in the UK, as Vice Presidents.

This drastic 30% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030, calculated in terms of transport performance (tonne and passenger-kilometres), will use 2007 as the base year.

Commenting on the IRU Resolution EU Vice President Antonio Tajani said this week: “Through this resolution, your 180 members present in 74 countries have committed themselves, on a voluntary basis, to improve their emissions efficiency. This commitment is evidence of the commercial road transport industry’s good will. The Commission therefore welcomes your resolution, looks forward to its concrete implementation and I congratulate you for this initiative.”

Holder of a Master of Law Degree, Retelski has already filled various positions within the IRU TIR Department between 2001 and 2008, in particular as Head of the TIR Claims and Legal Affairs Department, then as Deputy Head of the TIR Department.

He more recently successfully applied his talents with a multi national firm engaged in the humanitarian field in a hundred countries in Asia and Africa.

Retelski is taking over from Jean Acri, who will henceforth assume the position of Special TIR Advisor – Legal Affairs and Customs Policy for all major legal and strategic issues, arising in particular from the growing dynamism of IRU partner regional organisations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC), the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO), the League of Arab States (LAS), the Eastern Partnership, etc.

“This is the IRU 2010” reflects the IRU’s achievements in 2009 realised with and for its Members, and looks forward to the events and challenges of 2010.

This year’s edition also explains and promotes the role of the road transport sector, the challenges it faces, the solutions it proposes, and highlights the concerns of the road transport industry worldwide

The IRU Indices provide historic data on GDP, road freight transport volumes and new vehicle registrations from 2005 onwards, while providing a one year forecast.

For 2010, the IRU Indices forecast for OECD countries:

· an average 1.1% increase in GDP, compared to an overall decrease of 3.8% in 2009;

· a 1.1% growth of transported tonnes, versus a 3.9% decrease in 2009; and

· a modest increase in new vehicle registrations of 0.9% reaching 1.3 million new registrations of trucks over 3.5 tonnes in 2010, which is still considerably below the level of the 2005 base year.

IRU Head of Sustainable Development, Jens Hügel, said, “After a year of economic crisis, there are clear signs that the economic decline will stop. However, it appears that transport operators are reluctant to invest in new vehicles, preferring instead to wait for more steady economic growth.”

For BRIC countries, IRU indices of road freight volumes show for 2010:

· a 10% growth in China, versus 8% in 2009;

· a 7.3% increase in India, compared to a 5.8% growth in 2009;

· a 4.8% increase in Brazil vs. 0% in 2009; and

· a 4.9% increase in Russia, after a drastic decline of 8.6% in 2009.

“It seems that ‘old’ OECD economies will not jumpstart the ‘global economic engine’, but rather the BRIC countries that were less severely impacted by the crisis than OECD countries,” Jens Hügel concluded.

For country comparisons and comparative data, as well as IRU Indices methodology, please visit the IRU’s website (http://www.iru.org/index/indices-app).

The IRU says the survey will help to identify the best conditions for the introduction of the e-CMR, its advantages and potential shortcomings, with a view to optimising and expanding the use of this electronic road freight transport document.

In this increasingly competitive environment with rapidly growing information flows, it is crucial to ensure that the UN Protocol to the CMR Convention concerning the electronic consignment note (e-CMR) is implemented to increase efficiency and reduce costs, according to the IRU.

To take part in the survey click on the following link: