As a new European Parliament slowly takes shape, the IRU Manifesto has been quick to send them a series of recommendations for improving the road transport sector across Europe. The manifesto focuses on three main areas: employees, in particular working conditions and the attractiveness of the profession; the environment, so that heavy goods vehicles too can meet the EU’s carbon footprint targets; and economic prosperity, mainly through digitalisation. We detail each of the IRU Manifesto 2024 axes in this article.
1/ IRU Manifesto – The employee
The road transport sector is one of the pillars of the European Union. It employs 5.1 million people across the EU, including 3.4 million in the freight sector. Despite this, according to the IRU Driver Shortage Report 2023, there is a shortfall of around 500,000 drivers.
Finally, another important fact before we go any further: 5% of these drivers are under 25, while 33% are over 55. The ageing of active drivers will inevitably lead to a worsening of the driver shortage that Europe is already facing today.
The actions proposed in the IRU Manifesto are as follows:
- Reduce the gap between leaving school and taking up a post. Make it easier for young graduates to enter the profession by reviewing the Road Driver Licensing Directive.
- Create a European exchange on the harmonisation of third-country driving licences and training for the Certificate of Professional Competence.
- Update training courses at European level.
Improve and expand the network of safe and secure parking areas.
2/ The environment
Like many sectors, the car and HGV industry is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. All this, of course, while maintaining current levels of performance and continuing to meet the needs of passenger and freight transport.
Road transport is one of the good performers. In 2023, the number of registered electric trucks rose by 234.1%! The European Union’s main line of communication should be to encourage the use of public transport and a significant reduction in individual transport (according to the IRU Manifesto).
The second, of course, will be to re-evaluate CO2 reduction standards in the light of realistic targets. At the same time, we need to continue and step up subsidies for the renewal of the fleet in favour of energies such as electricity and hydrogen. To complement this, each European country needs to work together to improve the infrastructure for alternative fuels, particularly with electricity suppliers.
3/ Economic prosperity
It is important, if not crucial, not to further increase the regulatory burden on road transport operators. 77.8% of freight transport in the European Union is carried out by road – in tonnes per km.
This dominance of the road sector is also found in passenger transport, although to a lesser extent. 50.4% of public transport is carried out by road – in passengers per km.
c. The move to 100% digital transport documents is a vital step needed to avoid administrative backlogs, move towards a data-driven economy and achieve major reductions in the cost of administration for transport companies.
-> To this end, the IRU Manifesto advocates harmonisation of the regulation on electronic freight transport information (eFTI), enabling many control documents to be digitised.
- d. We have to accept new modes of transport, with larger and heavier vehicles. At present, the EU bans cross-border journeys by lorries over 40 tonnes.
-> Amend legislation on maximum size and weight in road transport and incentives for multimodal transport.
To conclude with a few figures on commercial transport, in 2024 there were 1.03 million road haulage companies in Europe. 89% of these companies had fewer than 10 employees. In countries like Lithuania, road transport can account for over 6% of GDP!
To find out more
You can find this article on IRU manifesto and others linked to it in our dedicated section, by clicking here: Posting of drivers
