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    • Truckmakers must be required to disclose efficiency data, say hauliers and Schenker France

    Truckmakers should have to disclose data about their vehicles’ fuel efficiency, including aerodynamic performance, engine efficiency and rolling resistance, hauliers from across Europe and logistics giant Schenker France SAS have said. This is essential to provide more transparency in the sector and create competition and reliability, the groups said in a letter to the EU climate and industry commissioners that was co-signed with sustainable transport group Transport & Environment (T&E). [1]

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    The EU’s draft law on monitoring and reporting truck fuel efficiency should also require that ‘conformity of production’ testing – to check the ability to produce a series of products to specification – be reported, specifically where it impacts CO2. The results should also be made public or accessible to third parties, the groups said. Engine, axle and transmission efficiency, should also be reported to the European Commission while average values must be made publicly accessible, they added. The proposal is currently being discussed by EU governments and MEPs, but one year after truckmakers were found colluding to set the price of emissions reduction technology, they are now resisting public disclosure of their vehicles’ efficiency data.

    Stef Cornelis, safer and cleaner trucks officer at T&E, said: “The cartel case and lack of progress on fuel efficiency show that more competition and transparency is urgently needed. Calling information commercially sensitive is an excuse to prevent more competition among Europe’s truck manufacturers.”

    An overall efficiency profile of new trucks, based on this data, must be made available to truck buyers and third parties through an online digital portal, the groups said. They also called for an on-road test to be in the next phase of the VECTO testing procedure – and that the new law require the on-road data be made public.

    Stef Cornelis concluded: “Secrecy will only lead to abuse. The truck CO2 monitoring and reporting proposal is a unique opportunity to change this. The European Parliament and especially the national governments should support innovation and cleaner trucking rather than protecting domestic truckmakers.”

    Hauliers spend on average €32,000 a year per truck on fuel. Meanwhile, fuel consumption hasn’t improved over the last 20 years: a truck from 2015 still consumes roughly the same amount of fuel as a 1995 truck. Trucks represent less than 5% of all vehicles on the road in Europe but are responsible for around a quarter of road transport’s greenhouse gas emissions.

    Note to editors:

    [1] The letter is signed by T&E, Schenker France SAS, and eight national and regional associations of hauliers/transport companies:

    Asociación del Transporte Internacional por Carretera – ASTIC (Spain); Associação Nacional de Transportadores Públicos Rodoviários de Mercadorias – ANTRAM (Portugal); European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services (CLECAT); Fédération Nationale des Transports Routiers – FNTR (France); Freight Transport Association – FTA (UK); Koninklijke Federatie van Belgische Transporteurs & Logistieke Dienstverleners – FEBETRA (Belgium); Nordic Logistics Association – NLA (Denmark, Norway, Sweden); and Transport and Logistics Netherlands – TLN (Netherlands).

    Read more:

    Letter: Joint statement in support of strengthening the Monitoring and Reporting proposal