In the quest to ensure efficient and sustainable road transport across the European Union (EU), policy makers need to consider a number of different factors, ranging from vehicle design to emissions, safety technology and road charging. Kristian Hedberg is head of the European Commission’s (EC) Land Transport Policy unit, and oversees efforts to create a single European road transport area. He spoke to Automotive World about some of the priority areas this year and the challenges that lie ahead.
New Commission, new priorities?
This year stands out in Europe due to the changeover of the EC and the Parliament, both of which have a five-year mandate. A new Parliament just started in July, and a new Commission comes in on 1 November. “This means that at the moment we are quite busy preparing elements which, in our view, would constitute a meaningful work programme policy agenda for the incoming Commission,” said Hedberg. “At the department level of the administration we cannot pre-judge what the new political hierarchy will take up as the new priorities going forward, but at the same time I can imagine that issues such as those related to road charging will be something that the new Commission will want to take a look at, precisely with a view to ensuring that we have a resource base to secure a good state of our infrastructure.”
Road charging is one of the most pressing issues in Europe, where at the moment systems vary by region. A number of member states are considering introducing new charging schemes or modifying existing ones, in some cases extending the scope. “You have a very heterogeneous situation across the member states in the EU, and now we are looking at the possibility of introducing a European frame, still leaving flexibility for member states to define road charging schemes which are appropriate to their circumstances, but to bring more coherence into these different approaches,” explained Hedberg.
Then there is the issue of lorry weights and dimensions – a legacy item that is not impacted by the changeover from an outgoing to an incoming Commission. “This is certainly one of the priorities for the remainder of this year and, possibly, for the first half of next year,” said Hedberg. In April 2013, the Commission tabled a proposal to revise the standards that define the maximum weight and dimensions of vehicles. In April 2014, the Parliament issued its first reading position, and in June the member states in the Council reached a political agreement on the issue. “Now, the next step is for the Parliament and the Council to engage in a process to finalise the work,” he explained. From the original Commission proposal, the Parliament’s position on it, with certain modifications that the Parliament would like to see introduced, and the Council’s position, also with certain modifications that the Council would like to see, the Parliament and the Council need to thrash out a compromise version.
“For the sake of Europe’s transport operators and to bring clarity to our vehicle constructors, we hope that the Parliament and the Council will be able to finalise the legislative process by the end of this year or, at the very latest, in the first half of next year. And the outcome of that would be that we would hope to see, in the next five or so years, a new generation of trucks on Europe’s roads, which will be more aerodynamic, whose fuel consumption will be lower, whose emissions will be lower, and whose safety features will be enhanced.”
Lorries – unloved but indispensible
Fuel efficient, cleaner vehicles is another key focus area for the industry, and not just for environmental concerns. “Equally, they will contribute to reducing our dependence on oil imports. In the present geopolitical context, that is quite an important consideration as well,” said Hedberg.
Cleaner trucks will also serve to improve the reputation of road transport. “The fact that the sector has been and continues to be able to reduce its environmental footprint will increase the public acceptability of lorries on our roads. Lorries are not loved. It’s difficult to fall in love with lorries. They are a nuisance, they contribute to congestion and they are polluting. If you can reduce the levels of pollution brought by lorries, I think that will have a positive effect on the industry by increasing the public acceptability of this activity, which itself is an indispensable activity. Our whole economic and social organisation is based on efficient deliveries, and you can’t get rid of the lorries so let’s make them as environmentally efficient and sustainable as possible,” Hedberg said.
Notably, advances need not only come from the powertrain side. “We can also do meaningful things on the basic design of the truck,” he added. “If you make the truck more aerodynamic, then certainly on high speed you can reduce fuel consumption emissions by 7%-10%.”
It’s difficult to fall in love with lorries. They are a nuisance, they contribute to congestion and they are polluting
Another key aspect in the negative perception of lorries and an obstacle to efficient transport is road congestion. “Congestion is an utter economic waste,” said Hedberg. The EC estimates that road congestion costs the European economy between 1% and 2% of GDP. In the most congested areas such as the UK and the Benelux countries, the estimate is between 2% and 3% of GDP. “In other words, we have more than €100bn (US$130bn) per year wasted by congestion,” he emphasised. “If you manage to reduce congestion, the efficiency gains, not only for road haulage but for the overall efficiency of the European economy, would be quite significant. This is something that we look at very closely.”
One way to address congestion would involve more widespread and smarter deployment of road charging schemes. Hedberg believes the key is “road charging done smartly and using smart technologies. If you do distance-based charging, which you can do through the geo-localisation capabilities of the smartphones or embedded technologies in the vehicles, you can actually come with smart pricing schemes not only for commercial vehicles but also for private road users. And then you can come with price signals, which will actually have an impact on the choices that people make,” he explained. He believes that congestion could considerably decrease once drivers start asking themselves: “Do I need to go on the road now when everybody else is on the road and contribute to the congestion? Or am I less time sensitive?”
“If there was a pricing scheme which differentiated between the different times of the day, you might have some people who would choose not to be there at that time, and benefit from the lower cost at an alternative time. This would allow more fluidity and predictability into the traffic flows,” Hedberg said. “If we manage to make more use of spreading the traffic a little bit more evenly then we don’t need to build additional lanes, so we can save that cost, and just make better use of the existing ones.”
In general, Hedberg sees great promise in smart information and communication technologies in addressing both safety aspects and congestion. These are just some of the areas that are driving European transport legislation today. Hedberg will be speaking further on the subject at Automotive Megatrends Europe 2014, taking place on September 10-11, 2014.
Organised by Automotive World, Automotive Megatrends Europe 2014 is a two-day, six-stream conference focusing on Commercial Vehicles and Passenger Cars. Hedberg will deliver the Commercial Vehicle day keynote address.
Megan Lampinen
