Newsroom

Newsletter (January 2019)

Secure and Safe Parking Spaces

Within a few weeks the issue of secure safe parking spaces topped the EU agenda, being picked up both by the European Commission and EU stakeholders.

Six Member States (Austria, Germany, Italy, Lithuania and Luxembourg) received warnings from the European Commission early November as they fell short in communicating information on safe and secure parking space as required under EU Regulation 885/2013. These shortcomings have a detrimental effect on truck drivers as it often forces them to park in non-secured zones or unsafe locations due to the lack of accessible information. Member States now have two months to send their comments to the European Commission.

In addition, during the final conference of the Study on Safe and Secure Parking Places for Trucks, European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc presented the new standard for “Safe and Secure Truck Park Area (SSTPA)”. 

This new SSTPA standard will ensure that drivers across Europe are guaranteed not only that their goods and vehicles are protected, but that they are themselves safe from any physical danger. Truck parks complying with this standard will therefore offer minimum protection level in terms of security, among other things.

The Study was carried on over a year and led by the Consortium composed notably by the Greek Center for Research and Technoloy (CERTH), DEKRA (a European vehicle inspection company) and IRU (a global industry association for road transport). The study was funded by the European Commission.