CER Position - Revision of the Combined Transport Directive

CER welcomes the launch of the work on the revision of the Combined Transport Directive and the draft roadmap which the Commission published on 19 August 2021 outlining its intended actions until a legislative proposal comes out in Q4 2022.

More specifically, CER supports the intention of the Commission to explore the option of extending the current scope of the directive, from Intermodal-Loading-Units-(ILUs)-based Combined Transport to all intermodal and multimodal transport that promise to save on externalities when evaluated against road-only transport. Indeed, multiple intermodal solutions exist that rely on various transhipment techniques other than sole ILU-based techniques. From this point of view, CER looks forward to the results of the study that the Commission is currently carrying out on transhipment techniques. Also, some unimodal solutions (like block trains and, above all, single wagonload transport) provide environmentally-performing end-to-end logistic solutions compared to road-only solutions.

Read more in the full paper available to download below.