The International Road Transport Union is welcoming the outcome of the a by the European Parliament’s Transport Committee, which makes important data more accessible to transport operators and other road users.
It says this sends a strong signal to accelerate digitalisation in road transport.
The IRU has repeatedly called for a pragmatic framework for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems, which will play an important role for the establishment of a European mobility data space. Hence, it says, the IRU appreciates the ambitious view of the file’s rapporteur, Rovana Plumb (S&D, RO), which was backed by TRAN. The vote reinforced the broad geographical scope and ambitious deadlines for EU Member States to provide critical data to their National Access Points (NAPs). The centralisation of such data by NAPs will facilitate transport users’ access to relevant information.
The IRU says it particularly appreciates the inclusion of both urban vehicle access regulations (UVARs) and alternative fuels infrastructure among the data to be centralised by NAPs. Regarding data on the latter, as the uptake of alternatively fuelled vehicles is expected to rapidly increase, data on the availability of dedicated infrastructure should be stored and frequently updated.
IRU Director of EU Advocacy Raluca Marian said, “The vote in the Parliament’s TRAN Committee is good progress, adequately addressing the needs of commercial road transport operators. IRU is happy to see an ambitious report by the rapporteur, Rovana Plumb. We now expect the Plenary’s green light rather quickly to allow for negotiations with the Council and the European Commission to begin.”
It says the improvement on data availability, brought by the upcoming ITS revision, could be significant. Currently, the degree of information and formatting varies greatly among EU Member States, which is not helpful to transport operators. IRU appreciates that the European Commission is called on by the rapporteur’s report to adopt a common methodology for the interoperability of data in the NAPs’ architecture.
IRU is closely working together with policymakers and other industry players to ensure that practical solutions are considered. IRU has joined the Advisory Board of the NAPCORE project – which aims to improve the interoperability of NAPs as the backbone of European mobility data exchange – and looks forward to contributing to it.
While the vote in the European Parliament plenary will take place in November, the Council has already agreed on a common position on the revision of the ITS Directive in June. The Council’s text significantly waters down the ambition of the original proposal put forth by the European Commission last year, which leaves the road transport sector with the hope that the Parliament’s ambitious position will prevail in the negotiations.
(Picture – IRU)
