European Parliament votes to modernise training for professional drivers

The European Parliament overwhelmingly adopted the proposal improving the training of professional drivers during its plenary session in Strasbourg today.

The Commission had proposed to enhance rules on professional drivers’ training to improve road safety standards in February 2017, as a revision to Directive 2003/59/EC.

The proposal aims to:

European Parliament votes to modernise training for professional drivers

The European Parliament overwhelmingly adopted the proposal improving the training of professional drivers during its plenary session in Strasbourg today.

The Commission had proposed to enhance rules on professional drivers’ training to improve road safety standards in February 2017, as a revision to Directive 2003/59/EC.

The proposal aims to:

  • modernise the training by putting the accent on road safety, including for example the protection of vulnerable road users and the use of driver assistance systems, emphasizing the optimisation of fuel consumption and introducing the use of new technology, like e-learning options;
  • clarify the rules on minimum ages between the Professional Drivers’ Directive and EU rules on driving licenses;
  • ensure the mutual recognition of training followed in a Member State different from the Member States of residence; and
  • make the Directive clearer and easier to interpret.

In addition, the Parliament decided to establish an electronic exchange system for drivers’ qualifications, which helps the mutual recognition of training undergone in another EU Member States and can also be used by enforcement authorities.

Following the vote in Parliament, the Council is expected to formally adopt the Directive in June.

e-CMR is on its way

The CMR is likely the last physical document in the transport industry. The digitalisation doesn’t stop here. The advantages of the e-CMR are evident for drivers, transport operators as well as authorities. We recomend all drivers and driver organization to be open to the idea of e-CMR. More details about the e-CMR can be found in the document below:

UICR eCMR

Conference on Drivers of the future

on the right: Vincenzo Iuzzolino, Vice-President UICR; Maria Teresa Di Matteo, President of the Central Committee department – Ministry of Transport; Franco Fenoglio, President of Unrae Industrial Vehicle Section

An important conference was held in Rome on the “Driving Profession: driving in the future”. The  project was promoted by Unrae and the Central Committee of the Road Haulage departement. On stage were Romano Valente, General Manager of Unrae, Franco Fenoglio, President of the Unrae Industrial Vehicles Section; Maria Teresa Di Matteo, President of the Central Committee for the National department of Road Haulage; Matteo D’Andrea, CNOS-FAP General Manager; Antonella Galdi, Deputy Secretary General ANCI and Lucia Valente, Councilor for Employment, Equal Opportunities, Staff of the Lazio Region. Present in the room also Vincenzo Iuzzolino Vice-President of the Union Internationale des Chauffeurs Routiers UICR, representing the Professional Drivers.

The project aims to select drivers between 18 and 29 years of age to start training courses for the acquisition of the driver qualification card for heavy goods vehicles and subsequent training periods at road haulage companies. The conference was held in the presence of 300 students from vocational schools, institutions and numerous journalists.
A special thanks to the President Franco Fenoglio, who has always been close to us, promoting the figure and respect of those who make this job “Professional Driver”.

UICR-IRU GENEVA MEETING

On March 2, 2018 experts from IRU and UICR met in Geneva for an annual exchange of information and activities. One of the main topics was the profession of professional drivers in the future.

Looking back 5 or 10 years we see lots of work related changes for drivers. The future will bring more changes in shorter timespans. Everyone talks about driverless truck operation. We all know that it will come, but we don’t know when and how. Both organizations are aware, that those technical innovations must become part of the education for professional drivers.  UICR keeps a close relationship with the IRU Academy.

Other topics were events of both organization and how to work together in projects.