Press releases

CLECAT has joined forces with FIATA, UITP and the International Transport Forum and is extremely pleased to invite candidates to submit their applications for the 2011 Transport Achievement Award from this point forward until the 21st of March 2011. The Award focuses on “putting people first” and the winner will be the applicant that will manage to use its high level expertise to demonstrate excellence in identifying and efficiently meeting the transport needs of its clients. The Award will be delivered on the occasion of the 2011 International Transport Forum, to be held in Leipzig 25th – 27th of May and which will explore the implications of transport for society and individuals, and how transport can continue to contribute to sustainable growth. The award is open to all modes of passenger and freight transport: Operators Service providers Authorities Suppliers and manufacturers       The application may describe either a product, service, or project. The initiative must have been in operation for a minimum of six months, to ensure attributes and benefits are realised and supported by evidence, but not longer than 5 years to ensure the recognition of continual development and innovation.   Applications may be submitted in either English or French.   Deadline for Applications: 21st of March 2011.   More information can be found in this brochure . Award applicants should send their completed application to itfcontact@oecd.org  or to the International Transport Forum 2 rue André Pascal 75775 Paris Cedex 16 France

CLECAT is proud to announce the publication of the second edition of its Supply Chain Security Compliance Handbook and its Sustainable Logistics Best Practice Guide CLECAT Press Release

CLECAT issues a press release for the upcoming meeting of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council CLECAT Press Release

CLECAT issues a press release on the EC proposal and communication concerning a Single European Railway Area, as part of the recast of the first railway package. CLECAT Press Release 

Directive 96/53/EC allows cross-border operations of modular concepts in Europe between Member States that allow them on their territory CLECAT issues today a position paper that examines the consolidated text of the Council Directive 96/53/EC laying down for certain road vehicles circulating within the Community the maximum authorized dimensions in national and international traffic and the maximum authorized weights in international traffic, with a view to understanding its impact on the circulation of European Modular System (modular concept) combinations in the European Union. By performing a rational analysis of Directive 96/53/EC in line with the spirit of the original intention of the legislation, the CLECAT Road Transport Institute has come to the conclusion that the current EU legislation allows cross border operations of modular concept combinations between member states, on condition that these member states allow modular concept operations within their own territory even in their national transport operations. An additional condition is that the member states where such operations take place have informed the Commission. Marco Sorgetti , Director-General of Clecat made the following comment, when discussing with Mr Stefan Back , Chairman of the Clecat Road Transport Institute: “Common sense is very good guidance even in the most complicated legalistic discussions. The overarching principle of the directive is to create the conditions to further open the market, without creating distortions of competition. In other words the directive is intended to prevent member states from excessive protectionism by restricting the circulation, certainly not to prevent them from creating more flexible rules by allowing the circulations of such vehicles within their territory, as long as all operators stand on the same footing.”   Mr Back observed that “after reading this interpretation one is surprised that the strong emotions felt by some stakeholders made it possible for some to read this directive in a way that was clearly never meant”.  Mr Sorgetti added that “we can only hope the institutions will now take the view that there is no harm for member states to allow the use of these vehicle: this will contribute to reducing emissions that are a very serious problem and eventually provide some extra efficiency in our multi-modal operations, which are likely to greatly benefit from these combinations that are perfectly suited to intermodal transport.”   The position paper can be consulted at the following link: http://www.clecat.org/http://www.clecat.org/media/pp006oetro100528crossbordermodconcept.pdf The Road Transport Institute of Clecat, after the endorsement of the interpretation, took the view that this position paper be open to further signatures of stakeholders who share the same views on this interpretation of Directive 96/53/EC. All interested parties are welcome to take contact with the Clecat secretariat. Should you like further information you may contact our Secretariat (info@clecat.org) Mr Marco Sorgetti Director General CLECAT sorgetti@clecat.org http://www.clecat.org CLECAT press release (pdf version)   Reply from the Vice-President of the European Commission Siim Kallas

CLECAT and ESC issue a joint press release on the LOGSEC Project. Press Release

CLECAT FERRMED press release  

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-12603328-4"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {} CLECAT has published its Logistics Best Practice Guide. This is an extensive and thought-provoking review of existing best practices in the area of freight logistics. CLECAT has produced this guide for its own Member Companies. The Logistics Best Practice Guide is a compilation that is meant to be inspirational: it will guarantee interaction with a wide range of companies and publicity in exchange for information: your efforts to promote sustainable logistics solutions will be rewarded by being publicised and disseminated through the CLECAT information network. This will be a living document made publicly available. It is also evidence for the public that the industry is aware of its environmental impact and has the intention to deal with it effectively. Not only does the Best Practice Guide include many specific examples, it also contains a general section, providing food for thought for new ideas and/or incentives to report to CLECAT any positive achievements in sustainable business practice. The challenge to mitigate the consequences of human activities on the environment has become one of the major concerns characterising and influencing today’s business world. The battle to preserve our environment has gained momentum over the years and is now part of the policy of a growing number of enterprises. The ongoing battle against climate change owing to GHG emissions has also come to the fore in policy and business alike. These two different yet intertwined predicaments have not failed to impact upon logistics activities, questioning some of the basic principles of this discipline. Transport services appear to be one of the biggest sources of CO2 emissions and some of the transport emissions are also pollutants. This is however an industry, which is, on the one hand, indispensable for growth and employment and yet on the other hand has enduring difficulties freeing its dependence on fossil fuels . This being said, logistics is not only transport: a more wide-range view on what can be done to improve the environmental performance of logistics can contribute to our industry’s footprint in an area where legislation is finding it increasingly difficult to step in. The need to decrease emissions, but also to save energy and money, should be at the heart of our companies’ thinking. Luckily these needs – lessening emissions, decreasing the use of energy and saving money – are connected and may respond to the same drivers: not only the logistics service provider, but also the transport user are likely to benefit from savings that may be environmental as well as economical. There is an abundance of possibilities and many companies have already found ways to improve their business models with individual solutions, which have the potential to be developed into best practices. Their experience is the source of the best practice models that benefit and encourage others to do the same. In other words we are not trying to re-invent the wheel in this booklet: we are trying to disseminate the best practices that we have managed to collect from different sources, and make them available to others, whether they are logistics service providers or users. Whilst this may appear a minimalist approach, we believe it can be extremely helpful in an area where sharing knowledge and know-how is crucial. The Logistics Best Practice Guide  (V.1.0) can be downloaded here. THE NEW 2nd EDITION IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD HERE: CLECAT's Sustainable Logistics Best Practice Guide (2nd edition) Additional information can be found in the relevant Press Release.

CLECAT launched its Supply-Chain Security Compliance Handbook. The aim of this handbook is to provide freight forwarding companies with a practical guide, to show them which security initiatives they have to be aware of, which of them are mandatory, if they want to legally conduct their business, and to show where they can get further information on how to comply with security rules. CLECAT has always acknowledged the importance and necessity of a functioning security programme, which besides protecting infrastructure, assets and different interests has in the protection of citizens its main objective. This is not only essential to counter possible acts of terrorism, but also to benefit from the additional advantages that a security programme may bring to day-to-day business: theft prevention, decreasing insurance costs, advantages granted by Customs (faster clearance of goods, less/no screening, less documentation, smaller financial guarantees), etc. Whilst fortunately cargo operations have not been the target of terrorist actions so far, there is no certainty that the cargo supply chain may not be used to perpetrate such actions. The reason why this document is created is to provide some guidance to CLECAT Members in an area where it is increasingly difficult to avoid losing orientation and where it becomes increasingly easy to embark in time consuming (and often very costly) endeavours for little or no avail. We shall try to keep a practical style and we shall be pleased to prepare new versions of it in future, by inserting our Members’ observations as well by disposing of information which has become obsolete. For more information, please download the latest version of CLECAT's Supply-Chain Security Compliance Handbook (2nd edition) Date of last edit: November 2010

CLECAT Members elected a new President and new Board on the 2nd of December. The new elected President is Mr. Clive Broadley (left) from the UK, who succeeds Mr Jean-Claude Delen (Belgium). For more information, please see the Press Release.