IRU strengthens strategic partnership with International Transport Forum

IRU met with new Secretary General of the International Transport Forum (ITF), Young Tae Kim, to reinforce co-operation on the 2018 ITF annual summit on Road Safety and Security, and to reinforce collaboration on leading issues, including decarbonisation, and the ECMT Multilateral Permit System.

Committed to maintaining a level playing field for the industry, IRU is placing reform of the ECMT permit system high on the agenda. Introduced in 1974, the system has successfully harmonised rules and ensured fair competition between ITF member countries.

The reform should ensure the efficient use and balanced distribution of the quota of ECMT permits by ITF member states to international fleet operators in all member countries concerned, while guaranteeing the ECMT system’s proper functioning, without market distortion.

IRU’s partnership with ITF on its Decarbonising Transport project was established in 2016 to help the transport sector meet its obligations as part of the global Paris Agreement to tackle climate change. Today’s meetings looked into the data modelling and policy recommendations and stressed the need for further dialogue between all stakeholders.

IRU and ITF also addressed the follow-up and recommendations of the recent study on “managing the transition to driverless road freight transport” and advanced on setting up the transition management board, which will provide operational and political guidance.