IRU brought together MEPs and trucking industry leaders from the United States in a decarbonisation dialogue at the European Parliament last week.

IRU and South Africa’s Cross-Border Road Transport Agency (C-BRTA) have extended their memorandum of understanding, strengthening their commitment to enhancing international transport, facilitating transit and professionalising road transport.

IRU welcomes the Council’s agreement on a well-to-wheel approach for counting emissions in the transport sector. Major points of unclarity remain on how to treat subcontracting, a common practice in road transport, and how much bureaucracy and costs the new calculations will place on transport operators.

The Council’s general approach takes small steps towards addressing driver shortages with the revision of the driving licence rules, better news is expected from the European Parliament. During the same meeting, the Council reached a historic agreement on the recognition of specific driving and rest time rules for coach tourism drivers.

So many operators are finding it hard. What’s the solution?

IRU welcomes the new EU Passenger Mobility Package to improve passenger rights across all transport modes. But many bus and coach operators will struggle to cope with a heavy additional burden on their IT and digital system resources.

Speaking at the World Green Economy Summit in Dubai today, IRU has outlined a realistic and practical roadmap to effectively decarbonise commercial road transport without undermining vital mobility and logistics services.