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.

Coach mobility must be fully integrated into the EU’s future tourism framework if the bloc is to strengthen competitiveness, sustainability and resilience, IRU stressed at high-level discussions in Brussels.

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.

Significant progress has been made in reforming the ECMT Multilateral Quota, including the launch of a digital permit system.