The Secretary General of IRU, the world road transport organisation, outlined a pragmatic decarbonisation vision at a special closed-door ministers’ roundtable yesterday in Leipzig. Today, he charted the key to a resilient workforce primed for emergency preparedness.

Leading the dialogue on the future of automation in road transport at EUCAD 2025, IRU organised a workshop on AI and logistics, ensuring that the voice of operators was central to Europe’s cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM) agenda.

Border delays, permit digitalisation, and visa hurdles dominated discussions at BSEC-URTA’s General Assembly last week, as regional leaders tackled urgent threats to road transport and trade in the Black Sea region.

With China TIR operations surging 90% over the past year, IRU members from China and across Eurasia convened in Geneva to explore new routes, expand logistics hubs, and unlock untapped transit potential.

IRU welcomes today’s vote by the European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism Committee endorsing the provisional Driving Licence Directive agreement reached during trilogue. This follows recent formal approval by the Council’s Committee of Permanent Representatives, the first of the EU co-legislators to back the deal. The reform responds to long-standing industry calls to address driver shortages and promote the digitalisation of driving licences while upholding high road safety standards.

The Upply x Ti x IRU European road freight rates index for Europe shows that Q1 2025 contract rates fell by 2.3 points quarter on quarter (q-o-q). Spot rates declined more sharply, 3.8 points q-o-q. However, the spot index was up by 1.6 points, and the contract index rose by 0.4 points, year on year (y-o-y).

IRU joins the global call this week for safer roads, reinforcing the need to formalise, professionalise and certify the commercial road transport sector across the globe.