Newsroom

IRU takes note of the Council’s agreed negotiating position on the grids package as an important step towards strengthening the EU’s energy infrastructure to support electrification and decarbonisation.

How has IRU changed over the past 30 years? This was the question we put to IRU Secretary General Umberto de Pretto as he prepares to hand over to his successor.

Road transport is highly fragmented with large numbers of small and medium-sized (SME) operators. How can the sector help SMEs transition to carbon neutrality without putting their businesses at risk? This question was at the centre of the latest IRU Green Compact Roundtable, hosted by IRU member DP World in Paris, France.

IRU welcomes the launch of the European Commission’s final Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Transport call under the current 2021–2027 EU budget, which provides dedicated funding for three long-standing priorities of the commercial road transport sector: alternative fuels infrastructure, external border efficiency and digital innovation. The package includes EUR 130 million for alternative fuels infrastructure, EUR 20 million for external border-crossing improvements, and EUR 20 million for digi

IRU’s new position paper on the European Commission’s proposed Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) calls for practical adjustments to ensure the framework strengthens industrial competitiveness and decarbonisation without undermining the road transport sector.

IRU Secretary General Umberto de Pretto has been in the road transport industry for over 30 years. As he prepares to hand over the reins, we sat down with him to reflect on those three decades. The first part of the interview looks at the industry. The second is on IRU itself.

As new powertrain technologies emerge and EU policies push towards zero-emission vehicles, operators face growing pressure to make the right long-term fleet investments. IRU member AFTRI, the French International Road Transport Association, helped us unpack the key factors shaping those choices.

The Council of the European Union and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement to strengthen the Market Stability Reserve (MSR) for the EU emissions trading system covering buildings, road transport and additional sectors (ETS2), ahead of its full launch in 2028. The agreement backs the European Commission’s proposal to reinforce the existing safeguards designed to limit excessive carbon price volatility.

With new French electric truck subsidies in place since 1 June 2026, a recent IRU webinar explored the total cost of ownership (TCO) and CO₂ emissions of different truck powertrains in France. The webinar was accompanied by the release of a new IRU Intelligence report on the subject.

IRU brought the voice of commercial road transport operators to POLITICO’s Energy & Climate Forum in Brussels, joining European Commissioners, national policymakers, members of the European Parliament, industry leaders and energy experts in discussions on Europe’s energy, climate and competitiveness agenda.

IRU and a cross-sector industry coalition have called on EU policymakers to prioritise infrastructure, investment support and enabling conditions in the transition to zero-emission corporate fleets.

IRU’s General Assembly and transport councils brought together members from around the world to connect, discuss and decide on key issues.

IRU played a prominent role in bridging EU and national policies, as well as policymaker and operator priorities, at Transpotec Logitec and Next Mobility 2026, a major international exhibition and conference for freight transport, logistics and passenger mobility in Milan, Italy.

IRU, the world road transport organisation, has published its 2025 annual report, outlining key achievements in driving safe, efficient and sustainable road transport across the globe.

IRU joined more than 3,000 transport researchers, policymakers, industry leaders and mobility stakeholders from over 60 countries at the 2026 Transport Research Arena (TRA) in Budapest, one of Europe’s largest events on transport research and innovation.

IRU and T&E call for urgent political support to secure a pragmatic compromise in the ongoing trilogue negotiations on the Weights and Dimensions Directive in coordinated letters to the European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU, and the European Parliament’s lead negotiator, Rosa Serrano Sierra.

The first IRU Academy Accredited Training Institute (ATI) e-meeting of the year brought together more than 45 participants from around 30 countries to discuss the future of professional road transport training, with a strong focus on driver mobility, dangerous goods transport and recent IRU Academy developments.

With transport ministers and leaders gathered in Leipzig for the 2026 International Transport Forum (ITF) Summit, IRU called for practical reform and facilitation measures to strengthen road transport resilience and help the sector respond to growing global disruptions.

IRU welcomes the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism’s (TRAN) support for key positions on the Roadworthiness Package and the revision of Eurovignette rules on CO₂ emission classes for heavy-duty vehicles with trailers.

IRU, the world road transport organisation, and the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA), the voice of the chemical industry in the Arabian Gulf, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to advance safer dangerous goods transport.

IRU welcomes the European Parliament’s adoption of the agreement reached with the Council on the CountEmissionsEU regulation, establishing a common EU approach to emissions calculation for road transport. This marks the effective conclusion of the legislative process.

IRU member CEVA Logistics and Lenovo have teamed up to advance low-carbon, cross-border, door-to-door transport solutions.

BUS2BUS 2026 confirms its role as a key platform for industry and policy dialogue. IRU contributed to the discussions, bringing the EU policy perspective and its implications for operators’ day-to-day operations.

IRU’s new Intelligence Briefing, along with the accompanying webinar, is now available for download. It provides a data-grounded view of where road freight is heading in a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty.

Decarbonisation is a decades-long journey. But CEVA Logistics is quick to remind us that the road to net-zero is a daily endeavour – and that a host of solutions are already at our disposal.

Industry views on decarbonisation progress, challenges and opportunities are sought as IRU opens the 2026 edition of its annual Green Compact survey amid tumultuous fuel price and global energy market volatility.

In the second part of this series on the UN Decade of Sustainable Transport (2026–2035), IRU Secretary General Umberto de Pretto outlines clear actions to materialise tangible results. For a historical overview of sustainable road transport and joint IRU-UN initiatives, see the first part of this series.

IRU and industry partners were recently in Zeebrugge, Belgium, to review progress in electrifying long-haul freight transport under the EU-funded ZEFES project.

As the EU road transport sector accelerates its green and digital transition, the spotlight is increasingly on the people who will make it work on the ground. That was the message from a week of IRU discussions in Brussels, where EU policymakers, industry leaders and operators gathered to focus on one priority: how to align skills, technology and regulatory frameworks to deliver the transition.

IRU welcomes the European Commission’s proposal for a regulation on the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act but warns that the transport dimension, the backbone of EU mobility and industrial supply chains, remains underrepresented.

With new powertrain technologies becoming increasingly available on the market and EU-level policies pushing the sector towards zero-emission vehicles, operators are facing tough choices in planning investments for future vehicle purchases. Spain’s national trucking association gave us an overview of the key competing factors.

With the new UN sustainable transport decade under way, it’s now time to make it happen. In this two-part series, IRU’s Secretary General – who led efforts 30 years ago to establish the first sustainable development charter by a global transport organisation – reflects on the significance of sustainable transport and joint IRU–UN efforts since the historic 1992 Earth Summit.

The electric duo-trailer will first travel a 90km route twice a day. In a second phase, it will run an intermodal route between Spain and Germany. The long-term ambition is to promote cross-border operations with electric vehicles and encourage regulatory changes that normalise the use of duo-trailers.

IRU and more than 40 European transport organisations jointly call on EU Member States and the European Commission to allocate at least EUR 100 billion to the next Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding round under the forthcoming Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

IRU hosted the H2Accelerate consortium as hydrogen truck deployment in the EU transitions from small-scale trials to early market deployment.