The European Commission member states’ ambassadors met in the Council’s Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) and approved the development of a uniform legal framework for the use of electronic freight transport information in all modes of transport.
Specifically, the new rules require all relevant public authorities to accept any data made available online on certified platforms whenever companies choose to use such a format to provide information as proof of compliance with legislative requirements, in light with the advantages of digitalization.
Yet, if preferred, companies will be able to present the information in paper.
Moreover, after 30 months of the implementation, the Commission will adopt technical specifications, aiming to ensure interoperability between the various IT systems used for the exchange of freight transport information. Following, the Commission will implement common procedures and detailed rules for the assess and process of this kind of information, to make sure that the rules are consistently applied by the authorities. All this is done through secondary legislation.
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For the time being, the majority of freight companies and other transport business stakeholders use paper documents. The main challenge concerning the use of digital documents, is the variable degree of acceptance of digital documents by various authorities.
The development of digitalization of freight transport and logistics will lead to important administrative cost savings for companies, particularly SMEs, which represent the vast majority of transport and logistics companies in the EU. It will also cut costs for authorities and improve enforcement, and make the transport sector more efficient and sustainable.
As reported, the text will proceed legal and linguistic finalisation; Then, it will be formally adopted, firstly by the Council and secondly by the Parliament in a second meeting.
After 20 days of publication, the new regulation will come into force; Additionally, some of the provisions will be applicable from the entry into force of the legal act; others, four years later.
The obligation for public authorities to accept information made available electronically will start to apply five years after the entry into force of the regulation, depending on the adoption of the relevant technical specifications by the Commission.
