The newly adopted United Nations road safety resolution calls on governments to accelerate and scale up efforts to meet the goals of the decade of road safety action.
Safety drives all aspects of IRU's work. For decades, IRU, the world road transport organisation, and its members have worked together to make commercial road transport safer for everyone.
The small percentage of accidents that involve heavy-duty vehicles are mainly due to human error (85%), three-quarters of which are caused by other road users.
In addition to human lives, accidents also affect transport operations. Disrupted transport supply chains, immobilised vehicles, higher insurance premiums and the cost of repairs all impact transport services.
In September 2020, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021–2030, with the ambitious target of preventing at least 50% of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030.
To support the decade of action, the UN General Assembly adopted yesterday the “improving global road safety” resolution.
The new resolution urges UN Member States and other road transport actors to speed up and intensify efforts to achieve the decade of action and make road safety a political priority and maintain its importance in the broader sustainable development agenda.
It also emphasises the importance of strengthening global and regional cooperation initiatives to aid the exchange of information on training, capacity building and enforcement activities.
IRU supports all road safety measures that effectively target the main causes of accidents involving professional vehicles. The organisation’s road transport certification and standards activities centre around four areas: technical assistance, the IRU Academy, IRU Examiner, and IRU RoadMasters.
Technical assistance
IRU advises governments, public authorities, and international and regional institutions on formalising and professionalising the transport sector to boost road safety and transport standards.
Recent IRU technical assistance and formalisation activities include the development of a transport law for Togo, a comprehensive defensive driver training framework for the UN Refugee Agency, and a series of recommendations to reform Benin’s driving licence system and road safety procedures.
IRU Academy
For over two decades, the IRU Academy has been providing targeted training programmes to all professional road workers and managers.
As the training arm of the organisation, the IRU Academy trains and certifies thousands of mobility and transport logistics professionals every year through a network of over 40 Associate Training Institutes.
The IRU Academy network is continuously expanding with new partners and training programmes ensuring that all key requirements are addressed.
IRU Examiner
IRU Examiner is a tailored institutional solution for governments and examination bodies to assess and certify road transport professionals based on international standards and best practices.
It’s a ready-made platform to establish road transport professional qualifications – focusing on examination methodology and certification – that any country or region can implement for passenger and goods transport.
IRU Examiner is implemented with public-private partnerships, bringing together the expertise, resources and capacity of government and training and examination bodies.
IRU RoadMasters
IRU RoadMasters is a risk and talent management solution which provides digital dashboards to help companies make informed decisions during and after the hiring process.
Each IRU RoadMasters programme is tailored to the needs of a specific type of transport and was developed on the basis of international best practices. The programmes cover general goods transport, hydrocarbon products, passenger transport and eco-efficient driving techniques.
Developing an in-depth knowledge of drivers based on objective data helps mitigate the risk of incidents.
For example, Tristar reduced the number of incidents during the transport of hydrocarbon products by 60% with RoadMasters.