IRU has reiterated the urgent need for safe and secure parking areas across Europe, including ones with alternative fuels infrastructure, at a conference in the European Parliament. The debate was followed by the European Truck Parking Award ceremony.
At a conference organised by the European Secure Parking Organisation (ESPORG) in the European Parliament, IRU stressed the urgent need for safe and secure parking areas across Europe.
IRU EU Advocacy Director Raluca Marian, who joined a panel of industry experts on how safe and secure truck parking areas could act as hubs for alternative fuels infrastructure, said, “We continue to witness a dramatic lack of safe and secure parking areas, a basic condition for our drivers’ working conditions.
“In the EU, the revision of the TEN-T Regulation and Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) offers a unique opportunity to increase the number of safe truck parking areas, as well as enhancing their importance even further by deploying alternative fuels infrastructure in them."
“These two pieces of legislation must create enabling conditions for safe parking,” she added.
European Truck Parking Award
The event concluded with the award ceremony for the second edition of the “Excellence in Truck Parking Award”. The initiative aims to promote excellence and helps to spread good practices related to improving safety, security and quality of services offered by truck parking operators to professional truck drivers in Europe.
The winner of this year’s award for the category of large parking areas (above 50 places) is the “mowiz TRUCK Astigarraga” parking facility, located in northern Spain, close to the Spanish-French border.
The jury also awarded the “On Turtle La Jonquera” parking facility, also located in Spain, as the best small parking area (up to 50 places).
Raluca Marian said, “IRU is proud to be on the international jury and contribute to this year’s European Truck Parking of the Year Award.”
“We strongly favour highlighting excellence in the road transport sector, especially when it contributes to the well-being of drivers as well as helping to improve the image of the profession and attracting new drivers,” she added.
In letters sent to EU policymakers, IRU has called for revising the targets for safe and secure parking areas in the ongoing revision of the TEN-T Regulation and strengthening those for the deployment for alternative fuels infrastructure.