Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the European Road Safety Policy and Professional Drivers — Safe and secured parking places
Date: 2007-05-30
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: commercial vehicle, drivers, fight against crime, parking area, road safety, violence

C 175/88

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

27.7.2007

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘European Road Safety Policy and
Professional Drivers — Safe and secured parking places’

(2007/C 175/21)

On 16 February 2007,
the European Economic and Social Committee, acting in accordance with
Rule 29 (2) of its Rules Procedures, decided to draw up an opinion on European Road Safety Policy and Profes-
sional Drivers — Safe and secured parking places

The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society, which was responsible for
preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 7 May 2007. The rapporteur was
Mr Etty, followed by Mr Chagas.

At its 436th plenary session, held on 30 and 31 May 2007 (meeting of 30 May 2007), the European
Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 118 votes to 4, with 2 abstentions:

1. Conclusions and recommendations

1.1
For reasons of road safety, road freight crime, and health
and safety of truck drivers more safe and secured parking places
for professional drivers must be made available throughout the
EU.

The International Road Transport Union (IRU) and the
1.2
European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF) have formulated
common criteria which are well
taken and practicable and
which must be taken into account when such rest facilities are
constructed.

1.3
The EESC welcomes the initiative taken by European
Parliament and supported by the European Commission to set
up a pilot project with a view to test the feasibility and to
provide start up aid to create safe and secure parking areas for
professional drivers.

The Committee recommends that:

the Commission include

1.4
and
secured parking places for professional drivers in the design and
co-financing of the Trans European Road Networks;

issue of

safe

the

which are primarily the competence of the Member States. This
should allow the Commission and the Member States to take
quick and coordinated action after the conclusion of the pilot
project mentioned in pars. 2.9, 2.10 and 2.11 here under. The
assessment should be made in the light of Article 71 of the
Treaty, but also take into account the link between measures
relating to working time and the health and safety of workers.
This could include measures on safe and secured parking areas
for professional drivers;

the Commission fully involve social partners in this

1.8
exercise.

1.9
The Commission should explore how they could rein-
force and help implement initiatives taken by organised civil
society to address the issue of safe and secured parking places
and support the organisations concerned to help their members
to make optimal use of existing and newly constructed rest faci-
lities. The Commission could, e.g. help them to complete and
improve information on rest facilities and to make this informa-
tion more accessible for their members, also on-line. Other
examples are a system for certification of safe and secured
parking spaces (utilising the joint IRU/ETF criteria) and a system
of daily information on still available parking spots. Jointly with
Member States and the organisations concerned, the Commis-
sion could develop methods to inform drivers in time.

1.5
idem, when approving projects on road infrastructure,
co-financed in the framework of the European Regional Devel-
opment Fund. The European Investment Bank should do the
same when granting loans for road infrastructure;

1.6 Member States consider the issue in the framework of
their implementation of the Road Safety Action Plan;

2. General observations

(N.B.: with respect to these three proposals, special attention
should be paid to the fact that more rest facilities for profes-
sional drivers are required, especially given that
transport
between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ Member States continues to
grow.)

the Commission assess,

1.7
in the period from now until
April 2009, the role which the EU could have in legislating rele-
vant aspects of the issue and in developing soft law in areas

European road safety policy, including the Third European
2.1
Road safety Action Programme (2003) and the European road safety
action programme mid-term review (2006), aimed at a target audi-
ence consisting, amongst others, motorcyclists, pedestrians, and
young people, as well as professional drivers. However,
the
Commission omitted several relevant issues, one of them even
being crucial in the eyes of the social partners. That is, as part
of road infrastructure safety, rest areas for professional drivers.
And in particular; safe and secured rest areas.

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2.2 Why is this such a crucial issue? Three good reasons, at
least, can be given as an answer to that question.

2.7
And there is the whole issue of facilitating the applica-
tion of the social elements in the legislation relating to lorry
drivers, which has not been given sufficient attention so far.

2.3
The first is the issue of road safety. The new regulation
561/2006 on driving and rest time has recently come into
Implicitly it recognises the importance of a sufficient
force.
number of safe and secured rest facilities for professional drivers
along the EU motorway network in Article 12 (1). In addition to
this consideration, relating to EU regulation, mention should be
made of national legislation prohibiting the circulation of heavy
lorries during weekends in certain Member States. This requires
better information supply by/and improved coordination among
Member States.

Secondly there is the extent of

2.4
road freight crime.
Although statistical data from Member Sates are in several
respects insufficient and difficult to compare,
it appears that
theft (of trucks and cargo) and assaults on drivers are on the
in international road
increase. Various sources indicate that
transport some 40 % of criminal
incidents occur at parking
areas alongside motorways. A study currently being undertaken
by the European Conference of Ministers of Transport and the
International Road Transport Union will produce fresh data on
attacks and violence against professional drivers in rest areas
shortly.

2.4.1
Parliament has recently (May 2007) published a study
on ‘Organised theft of commercial vehicles and their loads in
the EU’ (2), which estimates that the loss of value caused by
theft is more than EUR 8.2 billion, or a value of EUR 6.72 per
loaded trip. According
some
to the
9 000 professional drivers are the victims of such transport
criminality alongside the UE highways.

each year

study,

Finally,

safe and secured parking places

2.8
located at
adequate distances from each other along the EU motorways
could also have a positive environmental impact and contribute
to a better flow of traffic.

A debate is going on concerning the importance of safe
2.9
and secured rest places
for professional drivers. A major
element in it is the recent (2006) request of employers and
trade unions in the sector, IRU and ETF, to the EU and national,
regional and local authorities in the Member States to develop a
sufficient number of such facilities which meet a set of criteria
they have jointly developed.

2.10
In Parliament, deliberations on the new Regulation
561/2006 included the element of safe and secured parking
areas. An issue of special concern was road freight crime. At the
initiative of Parliament, supported by the Commission, a budget
of 5.5 million Euros was made available for a pilot project. This
project is now under way.
It includes feasibility studies and
provides start up aid to create secure parking areas.

2.11
A ‘Study on the feasibility of organising a network of secured
parking areas for road transport operators on the Trans European Road
Network’ was commissioned by the European Commission in
2006 and completed in early 2007 (3).

2.5
And, thirdly, health and safety of the truck drivers should
be taken into account. A tired driver is a liability in terms of
road safety. However, restriction of driving time is important in
transport policy primarily in terms of competition. At best, this
aspect only has a very modest place in its own right in current
legislation.

2.12
The start up aid has been granted to five model
projects. Main objectives are: to define common requirements
for secure parking areas and to construct a few new secure
parking slots in at least two Member States. Among the key
issues to be investigated are models for public-private partner-
ships.

2.6
There are also other issues. For example, professional
drivers of vehicles less that 3.5 tonnes in weight are exempt
from the European regulations on driving and rest periods and
speed-limitation devices. This is despite the fact that transport
by means of vehicles of this type continues to grow, including
transport of highly valuable freight, and that the number of acci-
dents involving them is on the increase.

2.13
The European Commission will evaluate the pilot
project immediately after its completion by April 2009. It will
involve the parties directly concerned in this evaluation, just as
it will involve them during the implementation of the project.
In 2009,
the Commission may come forward with policy
proposals (legislation, soft law, coordination, exchange of best
practices, etc.) based upon the evaluation.

(1) Article 12: Provided that the road safety is not thereby jeopardised and
to enable the vehicle to reach a suitable stopping place, the driver may
depart from Articles 6 to 9 to the extent necessary to ensure the safety
of persons, of the vehicle or its load. The driver shall indicate the reason
for such departure manually on the record sheet of the recording equip-
ment or on a printout from the recording equipment or in the duty
roster, at the latest on arrival at the suitable stopping place.

(2) Provisional version, 3.5.2007, IP/B/TRAN/IC/2006-194. The study
was done by NEA Transport Research and Training at the request of the
Transport and Tourism Committee of European Parliament.

2.14
Parliament has further set aside EUR 2 million for the
development of a certification system for safe and secured
parking areas in the 2007 budget.

(3) NEA Transport Research Training, Rijswijk, the Netherlands, January

2007.

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3.3
At present, there are insufficient parking places meeting
the IRU/ETF criteria in the EU, both in the ‘old’ and the ‘new’
Member States. In Central and Eastern Europe, they should be
included in the planning and construction phase of new motor
highways. Special attention should be paid to border crossing at
the external borders of the EU, where drivers often have to cope
with long waiting periods.

3.4
The European Commission and the Member States
should address this situation urgently, taking into account their
respective responsibilities and competences. The Committee
notes with interest the initiatives taken by the Parliament and
the Commission and hopes that these will lead to early activities
of Commission and Member States with a view to the prepara-
tion of policies to be developed after the pilot projects, referred
to in para 2.11 above, will have been completed.

this

initiative

3.5
The Committee is pleased to note that organised civil
society, in particular the social partners in the road transport
industry, have addressed the issue of safe and secured parking
places in a constructive and concrete way. It encourages the
Commission to explore how they could reinforce and help
implement
the organisations
concerned to help their members to make optimal use of
existing and newly constructed rest facilities. The Commission
could, e.g. help them to complete and improve information on
rest facilities and to make this information more accessible for
their members, also on-line. Another example is a system of
daily information on still available parking spots. Jointly with
Member States and the organisations concerned, the Commis-
sion could develop methods to inform drivers in time.

and support

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Dimitris DIMITRIADIS

2.15
The EESC has recently addressed the issue of safe and
secured parking places for professional drivers briefly in its
Opinion TEN/217 (4) and in TEN/270 (5).

2.16
The issue of availabilities in parking spaces is also being
addressed in Parliament's report on Road Infrastructure Safety
Management
of
20 March 2007.

(2006/0182/COD,

preliminary

version)

3. Specific observations

3.1
The Committee thinks that the Commission, by setting
rules for driving and rest time has also taken responsibility for
enabling professional drivers to comply with these rules. This
means that suitable parking areas must be available along the
main European motorways at such distances from each other
that drivers can take their prescribed rest periods when
required.

3.2
The criteria for such suitable parking areas, as developed
by the International Road Transport Union and the European
Transport Worker's Federation in March 2006, are well taken
and practicable. They adequately reflect several of the policy
recommendations made in the feasibility study referred to the
para 2.10 above. The criteria cover two types of rest facilities,
one for the most basic provisions and another requiring more
obligatory facilities for strategic hub points. IRU and ETF have
proposed, additionally, other facilities or services which are
rest area operators
highly recommendable or optional
depending on sufficient demand. The Committee is of
the
opinion that the criteria strike a proper balance between consid-
erations of road safety, security of driver and freight, and occu-
pational safety and health of drivers.

for

Brussels, 30 May 2007.

(4) Opinion on ‘Security of modes of transport’, CESE 1488/2005 of

14.12.2005, see par. 3.10. OJ C 65, 17.3.2006.

(5) Opinion on ‘Road infrastructure safety management’, CESE 613/2007

of 26.4.2007, see par. 4.8.