News

EP TRAN'S LAST CHANCE TO SAVE THE INTERNAL MARKET FOR TRANSPORT

YES to enforceability & the EU Internal Market – NO to the EMPL vote

ESC and CLECAT held a successful final CORE event in Brussels on 11 April 2018. Shippers, freight forwarders, transport providers, and authorities came together to demonstrate the tangible outcomes of the CORE project and how these can positively impact the future in delivering trusted and transparent supply chains.

The under-signed represent logistics service providers, freight forwarders and express carriers whose customers strongly depend on an effective, seamless and reliable road transport sector in Europe. Rules need to be simple, uniform, clear and easily enforceable, so that they facilitate transport operations, protect the workers employed in this industry and ensure a fair competitive environment.

A prohibition of regular weekly rest and reduced weekly rest in the vehicle will seriously disrupt international road freight transport at a time when the lack of suitable secure parking and rest facilities in the EU is a serious challenge, creating safety risks fore the drivers and the goods. This is the opinion of a group of key European industry stakeholders representing logistics service providers, freight forwarders and express carriers.

Together with the European Associations of the Private Port Companies and Terminals, Sea Ports, Ship Brokers and Agents, Port Community Systems and the Shippers, CLECAT published their position paper on the Ship Reporting Formalities Directive (RFD), also known as the Maritime Single Window initiative.

Following a project funded by the European Commission, a new Roadsec.eu portal has been created, which provides downloadable factsheets for truck drivers and logistics managers on top security tips, preparation of a security plan, vehicle inspection and incident reporting in road transport.

The current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) runs until the end of 2020. End of May 2018, the Commission will present proposals for the post-2020 MFF (2021-2027) and for the next generation of thematic programmes that will receive funding, including the most relevant programme for ports, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF II). In order to ensure that the CEF II comes with an adequate budget envelope, CLECAT has again joined forces with more than 40 transport organisations to revitalise, extend and coordinate the Transport coalition “More EU budget for Transport, the best investment plan for Europe!”, launched in 2015.

CLECAT has adopted its position paper on the revision of the 1992 Combined Transport Directive. CLECAT has long supported a revision of Directive 92/106/EEC, which is outdated, ambiguous and creates barriers to the effective operation of combined transport. The review is an opportunity to make the legislative preconditions realistic, transparent and up to date. Overall the Directive should be lighter, simpler and less costly to implement. The proposed revision goes some way to overcoming these failings of the current Directive, which is welcome, but still requires improvement in places in order to bring clarity and certainty to the combined transport market.

CLECAT held its 2017 Freight Forwarders Forum, on “Smart and Sustainable Logistics Solutions Through Multimodal Transport” at the Port of Barcelona on the 24th November. More than 80 experts, policy makers, and stakeholders in the supply chain discussed the challenges of multimodal transport, ahead of the 2018 European Year of Multimodality. An executive summary and the presentations are downloadable.