Vehicle Safety – Participate in revising the EU’s “Roadworthiness Package”!

When it comes to on-road transportation, safety is always a major concern. To ensure that a vehicle is in a safe operating condition and to protect the driver, the other users on the road and the vehicle itself, it is mandatory to regularly inspect the asset.

New, innovative technology is emerging to limit the amount of uncertainty, as well as person and material damage. As a result, we see more and more technical vehicles in our industry that are out of scope for normal regulations.

With this in mind, the European Commission has launched a public consultation to revise the Directives of the “Roadworthiness Package”, which will help them to create more relevant methods of inspecting vehicles. They are inviting everyone to express their concerns about the current legal framework before the Wednesday, 28th September. Don’t miss it!

Why does the European Commission want to revise the “Roadworthiness Package”?

To make the EU regulation more relevant, the European Commission plans to revise the three Directives of the “Roadworthiness Package” that were adopted in 2014. The three Directives are:

• Directive 2014/45/EU on periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers
• Directive 1999/37/EC of 29 April 1999 as amended by Directive 2014/46/EU on the Registration Documents for Vehicles
• Directive 2014/47/EU on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Union

The revision of such directives has many benefits: it will improve road safety, help maintain the vehicle roadworthiness over its lifetime, help reduce carbon footprint and traffic congestion.

To adapt these Directives, the European Commission has launched a public consultation which is opened until 28th September. You still have time to provide your input, especially on the mutual recognition of PTI’s!

Why is it crucial for our industry?

One of the Directives to be revised, Directive 2014/45/EU, is about the periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers. Currently, transport equipment operating internationally needs to be routed back to the country of registration for this annual test.

To comply with this Directive, drivers are forced to drive unnecessary kilometres. This has negative environmental and financial impacts, on top of negatively affecting traffic flow.

TRTA has simulated the calculations of the impact of this regulation on the Dutch & European trailer park. In Europe, excluding the United Kingdom, the figures are impressive. Approximately 1,836,000 trailers drive 189,475,200 kilometres without freight or cargo, creating an extra congestion of 22,032km, for timely inspection only. The ecological impact is disastrous: these kilometres emit 80,330,000kg of CO2!

Click here to read TRTA's whitepaper

Raising this issue to the European Commission can have a major impact on the PTI. Indeed, we can expect the European Commission to create a harmonization of testing standards and the mutual recognition of roadworthiness tests on the European continent.

We see an incredible value of having a European recognition of roadworthiness tests. This will make safety roadside check easier, but also reduce road congestion, CO2 emissions and cost.

We are convinced that allowing trailer inspection across Europe, regardless of the country of registration, will lead to significant benefits for both the planet and the industry. There is an urgent need to take actions, to reverse the impact of carbon emissions on climate change: this is the moment to provide our inputs on the mutual recognition of PTI’s!

How does this public consultation work?

The objective of this public consultation is to gather feedback and experience related to these Directives, from anyone that is concerned about the revision of these European Directives:

• Citizens
• Inspection bodies
• Industry (including equipment and vehicle manufacturers),
• Industry consumer organizations
• Associations of the road sector
• NGOs
• Competent Member States’ authorities
• Any other interested stakeholders

How can you provide input?

There are two ways to contribute to the revision of the “Roadworthiness Package”. You can either fill in the online questionnaire, or directly contact the European Commission (MOVE-RW-OPC@ec.europa.eu), both until 28th September.

To access the online questionnaire, you'll need to register or login using your social media account.

The questionnaire is translated into all official European languages, so you can submit your answers in your desired language.

If you want to take part in this public consultation as an organization or as a business, you will be asked to register via the EU’s Transparency Register.

What’s next?

The results will feed into the revision of the EU's roadworthiness rules, including those on periodic roadworthiness testing, roadside inspections for commercial vehicles, and vehicle document registration.

Click here to access the current results of this public consultation!

This is a great opportunity to adapt the EU regulations based on everyone’s feedback: let’s not miss this occasion!