Speeches - Karel Noordzy

Ladies and gentlemen,

The 1990s in the Netherlands saw growing public and governmental concern regarding the environmental and road safety aspects of road transport. In order to avoid undesirable measures forced by the government, the road transport sector adopted a pro-active approach. Although this was quite a change for both government officials and transport operators, this strategy is bearing fruit.

A national plan as a guideline for action

In 1995, in the spirit of the IRU Charter on Sustainable Development, the Dutch road transport sector developed a strategic view on a desirable and effective policy, focussing first on environmental aspects. With this plan, the road transport sector was the first sector to actively elaborate a method to achieve nationally set emission targets for 2010. Measures include:

• improved traffic flow
• cleaner, quieter and more fuel-efficient vehicles through further technical improvements
• better fuel quality
• improved driver behaviour
• improved logistic efficiency

The plan served as an ‘umbrella project’ for a series of consecutive sub-projects, carried out in recent years. Although not all measures have yet been implemented, already the statistics clearly show that the Dutch road transport sector has made significant progress. Since 1992, emissions have decreased, both in absolute and in relative terms, in some cases sharply.

Basic thought behind this approach was to actively influence policy, in a constructive, pro-active manner, rather than to be confronted with, and react to, undesirable measures designed by the government. This is why the plan was called ‘Taking the helm’.

This approach was also taken with respect to road safety. TLN has initiated several projects, for which government support has been secured.

Three typical problems with governments

Relationships with governments are not always easy. In pursuing support for our action plan, we encountered three typical problems:

• Governments seem to favour a sectorial approach: taking some measures here, and none there. An integral policy and the involvement of all relevant parties often lacks. With our national action plan, we pursued just that.
• Initiatives and intentions of the transport sector are regarded with suspicion. The latest example of this, was the publication of our report "Comparing apples and oranges", which states that a modal shift from road to rail has only marginal, and sometimes even negative, environmental effects. As this was contrary to governmental and political conviction, the report was ignored. However, the results were recently confirmed by the official governmental environmental research centre RIVM.
• Governments seem to have a natural tendency to short term ‘cherry picking’: from the entire stock of measures, they pick only those that are either invented by them, or are otherwise favourable to themselves. It is the challenge of the road haulage industry to tempt the government into a package deal with both ‘sweet and sour’.

Although the reception of our plan ‘Taking the helm’ has been rather cool, after five years, we can say that, by and large, we received both sweet and sour. The Dutch government now seems to be convinced that measures where both society and the transport operators win, are most effective.

Changing the mind-set of our member-hauliers

To be frank, this pro-active approach was quite a break with tradition within our sector. Proclaimed government measures on safety and the environment were often mainly seen as nasty and unnecessarily restrictive. Changing the approach was therefore certainly not easy, involving quite a lot of discussion. Even more so, because developing a thorough vision on sustainability requires clear choices on fundamental principles such as ‘the user pays’ and ‘the polluter pays’, which in some cases can have painful consequences.

However, in general, most Dutch transport operators realise that sustainable development in the sector is inevitable and even a necessity for survival in the long run, as it will not only be vague entities such as ‘the government’ or ‘the public’ that demand cleaner and safer transport. Rather, it will be to an increasing extent the shipper, the hauliers’ very real direct client, who will make these demands. An increasing amount of operators, therefore, realise that in the vast majority of cases, ecological and safety efficiency is not a burden, but a prerequisite for making money.

A difficult road ahead

Where do we stand now? Although the Dutch transport sector has been eminently successful in decreasing emissions and involvement in traffic accidents, it is also clear that much remains to be done. Even more so, as the increasing demand on transport services absorbs much of the progress made. Without additional measures, we estimate that in 2010 we will be about 70% removed from the target level for CO₂ and 30% from the target level for NO_x.

Achieving the goals we set ourselves, therefore, requires a fundamental discussion on how to deal with this lurking reality. It is clear that resolving these problems is a formidable challenge, requiring the most of our creativity and determination.

However, we are convinced that, with sustained support from both governments and suppliers and with tools such as presented in the IRU-Guide to Sustainable Development, we can make great progress.

Thank you.

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