ESTA HAS PUBLISHED A FIVE-YEAR MANIFESTO FOR EUROPEAN ABNORMAL TRANSPORT TO HIGHLIGHT THE ORGANISATION’S MEDIUM-TERM STRATEGIC TRANSPORT PRIORITIES FROM NOW UNTIL 2029.
The manifesto – entitled Competitive and Harmonised Abnormal Transport in Europe – is intended to support the delivery of ESTA’s overall mission to improve the safety and efficiency of Europe’s vital heavy transport sector.
ESTA Director Ton Klijn said: “There is a growing level of political activity in the transport sector as our national leaders become increasingly aware of the importance of the work being carried out by our members.”
“Now it is essential that those same political leaders appreciate the need for a coordinated approach that crosses European borders and boundaries if the potentially great gains for industry and our clients are to be captured and not lost.”
“We hope our manifesto will help to drive that debate forward.”
There are two versions of the manifesto – a short one for public consumption and a longer more detailed version that is only available to members. Both can be accessed via the ESTA website.
The manifesto’s four headline priorities are:
To support these priorities, ESTA is strongly backing the revision of the EU’s Weights and Transport Directive that is currently being discussed in Brussels.
The organisation has also long called for the creation of a network of safe and secure parking places for abnormal transport that will both boost the industry’s productivity and also help with the recruitment of the next generation of drivers.
In addition, given the growing importance of abnormal road transport between various European industrial areas, ESTA is increasingly hopeful that its calls for the introduction of abnormal transport corridors within the trans-European road network will begin to garner serious support.
Such corridors would allow abnormal transport to run smoothly and avoid potential damage of infrastructure, that is not adapted to abnormal road transport weights and dimensions.
In the manifesto’s introduction, ESTA says: “We want Europe to be a place with clear and harmonised, sector-specific rules governing abnormal transport. With this Manifesto for the 2024-2029 legislature, we call on all EU decision makers to endorse our values and priorities”
“ESTA also has members that are outside the European Union. We hope and expect that the adoption of a sensible and efficient regulatory regime within the EU will lead to similar reforms and alignment within the wider European community and beyond.”
The text of the short manifesto is in the transport section of the library in ESTA’s website. The full version is available to members in the Knowledge Base section.
