Pilot project met beveiligde parkeerplaatsen voor vrachtwagens (en)
Out of a general concern to ensure greater security for all road users, Vice-President Jacques Barrot i today took part in the launch of a pilot project to develop secure parking sites for trucks using the trans-European network. A total of five pilot parking sites will be built or equipped in France, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom to serve as a model and encourage investors to develop such facilities. The first secure truck parking site, at exit 20 on the A2 motorway near Valenciennes between Brussels and Paris, is scheduled to open in January 2008. The Commission is providing half the investment needed for this pilot project.
Before symbolically planting a tree at the first secure truck parking site to be built as part of this project, Jacques Barrot, Commission Vice-President with responsibility for transport, said: "The European Union is doing more than just regulating road transport to make it safer and more environmentally friendly. It is also cooperating with industry and the social partners to carry out specific projects on the ground which will improve working conditions for truck drivers and the security of the goods they carry. As a result, in the coming months truck drivers will begin to see parking sites better suited to their needs on the trans-European network."
The pilot project consists of the construction of the secure truck parking site near Valenciennes [1] and investments to improve the security of existing rest areas at Wörnitz (Germany), Ashford (United Kingdom), Uhrsleben (Germany) and Liège (Belgium). Standards and the database of parking sites available throughout the trans-European network will also be developed in this project. The project relies on a partnership bringing together motorway and truck parking site operators and associations representing logistical and road transport operators as well as insurance groups and the police. It is programmed to take two years and will cost 10.9 million euros, half of which will be provided by the Commission [2].
The Commission has published today a call for proposals [3] which, in a second phase, will grant a European quality and security label to some 50 rest areas on the trans-European network. Interested organisations have until 14 September to submit their proposals.
These initiatives will help to overcome the lack, on certain parts of the trans-European network, of parking areas with suitable facilities for ensuring rest and security for professional drivers. They will also help to deal with the proliferation, with the growth in traffic, of criminal acts targeting trucks or their cargoes. According to recent studies, more than one attack in three on an international road transport takes place on a parking site.
For more information on European policy in the road transport field see:
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/road/policy/index_en.htm
[1] "Truck Etape Valenciennes"
[2] See http://www.setpos.eu/
[3] See http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/grants/proposal_fr.htm