ESC fights EC over extra trucking costs

摘要

The European Shippers' Council (ESC) has again appealed to the EC to take into account the views of European industry before corning up with final legislation on trucking charges, that include external clean up costs for the first time. The EC is about to publish a White Paper on the subject based on research carried out since 2006, after the European Parliament (EP) asked it to come up with 'a generally applicable, transparent and comprehensible model for the assessment of all external costs to serve as the basis for future calculation of infrastructure charges'. The argument in favour of the internalisation of external costs, such as those associated with pollution, accidents and noise abatement, is that unless each transport mode pays its fair share, the transfer of traffic to more environmentally attractive modes will not happen in the best way.