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ECG - The Association of European Vehicle Logistics

ECG

ECG, the Association of European Vehicle Logistics, has been the voice of the Finished Vehicle Logistics industry in Europe since 1997.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Clean corporate vehicles

8 Sept 2025

ECG The Association of European Vehicle Logistics welcomes the ambition to decarbonise transport but firmly warns against another policy-driven transformation that risks failure. ECG has been the voice of the Finished Vehicle Logistics industry in Europe since 1997. We represents the interests of over 200 member companies and partners, from family owned SMEs to multi-nationals, and is the major champion of the European vehicle logistics sector. Our members own or operate more than 470 car-carrying ships, 14,000 purpose-built railway wagons, 23 river barges and more than 26,000 road transporters. Our sector makes use of all modes of transport and especially for the last mile delivery. Our members are committed to the Green Transition. In the context of the European Commission initiative on clean corporate fleets, the transition has to be based on informed decisions, operational realities, transparent data, and incentives. Binding mandates and quotas, will not deliver results, they risk pushing operators into unworkable compliance scenarios while ignoring the structural gaps that currently hinder the adoption of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). The transition will only succeed if it is market-driven, grounded in operational realities, and supported by three pillars: 1. Transparency requiring standardised emissions reporting using harmonised methods to benchmark progress and identify real inefficiencies. 2. Incentives supporting voluntary adoption with infrastructure funding, operational subsidies, and tax measures that reflect logistics realities. 3. Collaboration involving transport operators and shippers in shaping a framework that evolves with technology and market readiness.
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Response to EU industrial maritime strategy

28 Jul 2025

Shipping is vital to the EUs transport network and economic cohesion, but the sectorespecially short-sea operatorsfaces urgent decarbonization and financial challenges. As ECG the Association of European Vehicle Logistics we fully support the development of such a strategy. The shipping sector, particularly short sea, is under pressure to decarbonise and invest in new technologies that are not yet economically viable while at the same time manage the ongoing challenges. We believe that a forward-looking Maritime Industrial Strategy is essential to enable the shipping industry to meet its climate objectives while maintaining operational viability and competitiveness. The strategy should provide concrete mechanisms and support frameworks that address the real operational, financial and regulatory challenges faced by the industry today. Key focus areas should include: 1. Accelerating the development and availability of alternative fuels 2. Ensure that ETS revenue is allocated to support maritime innovation and decarbonisation 3. Align EU decarbonisation measures with IMO framework Full response to the consultation is attached to this feedback.
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Meeting with Kateřina Konečná (Member of the European Parliament)

18 Mar 2025 · ECG Dinner Debate 2025 - Driving the future: the role of finished vehicle logistics in Europe’s automotive industry

Meeting with Alexandr Vondra (Member of the European Parliament)

6 Mar 2025 · Presentation of priorities

Meeting with Sophia Kircher (Member of the European Parliament)

6 Feb 2025 · Weights & Dimensions Directive

Meeting with Markus Ferber (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and Hydrogen Europe

4 Oct 2023 · WDD

Response to Evaluation and revision of the Weights and Dimensions Directive

26 Sept 2023

Please see attached ECG's position paper.
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Meeting with Kathleen Van Brempt (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur for opinion)

7 Jun 2023 · Decarbonisation of the logistics sector (APA)

Meeting with Alexandr Vondra (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and Transport and Environment (European Federation for Transport and Environment) and

21 Mar 2023 · EURO 7

Meeting with Elzbieta Lukaniuk (Cabinet of Commissioner Adina Vălean)

21 Mar 2023 · Meeting on road transport

Meeting with Isabel García Muñoz (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and E-MOBILITY EUROPE

22 Sept 2022 · Revision on the directive of Weight and Dimensions

Response to Evaluation and revision of the Weights and Dimensions Directive

17 Feb 2022

ECG – The Association of European Vehicle Logistics is the voice of the Finished Vehicle Logistics (FVL) industry in Europe, a truly multimodal sector, representing over 140 member companies and partners operating rail, road, maritime and fluvial modes across Europe. ECG appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback to the Commercial vehicles – weights and dimensions (evaluation) initiative aiming at reaching the full potential of the single market and significantly reducing greenhouse emissions from transport. In July 2020, ECG issued the “ECG Paper on loaded length of vehicle transporters” laying out the benefits of loaded length harmonisation to at least 20.75m at EU level (see attachment). These benefits include carbon emissions savings, legal certainty for operators engaged in international transport and increased efficiency in the sector. ECG welcomes the confirmation of this analysis by the European Commission in the present Call for Evidence. By harmonising loaded length to at least 20.75m at EU level, the following is noted: • the FVL sector can already significantly contribute to the saving of carbon emissions by increasing operators load factors with the same rolling stock that is already in use. Despite the drop in volumes in the automotive sector caused mainly by material shortages (especially microchips) in 2021, high demand is forecasted to bring volumes back to historic levels in the near future. Therefore, potential carbon savings can be enabled for the coming years; • operators would finally operate in a single EU market now characterised by a patchwork of different national legislations in this area. By harmonising around the most common limits already allowed across the EU, legal certainty can be created for operators who engage in cross-border activities; • the Commission should implement the automatic authorisation cross-border transport of longer and heavier vehicles between neighbouring Member States that allow them. For example, currently a vehicle carrier crossing from Romania to Hungary, where permitted loaded length is 21.75m and 22.00m respectively, can be loaded to the minimum allowed in the two countries based on a bilateral agreement among the two countries. Automatic authorisation at EU level would decrease the administrative burden on Member States having bilateral agreements and companies who engage in these operations. Additionally, ECG supports the increase of maximum weight to 44 tonnes at EU level: • 13 Members States already allow for a weight of more than 40 tonnes. In the automotive industry specifically, the passenger cars and light commercial vehicles are increasingly heavier due to the shift to electrification. On average, electric cars weigh 1,800 kg, around 500 kg more than the average petrol/diesel car of 1,300 kg; • As Alternative Fuel trucks are brought to market most are likely to be considerably heavier than existing ICE equivalents thereby reducing available load capacity; • The loaded weight of vehicle carriers are, therefore, getting significantly heavier causing a decrease in load factor in international transport where the maximum allowed weight is 40 tonnes making the industry less efficient than it could be and hindering carbon emissions savings. The result is more car transporters on the roads and an increase in the number of drivers required.
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Response to Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy

28 Jul 2020

ECG represents the European Finished Vehicle Logistics industry which moves millions of vehicles around Europe every year. ECG shares the objectives of the European Commission to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and to make mobility smart as well as sustainable. The sector maximises the utilisation of multimodality where possible as demonstrated by the extensive use of short-sea and rail in the sector. However, transportation of cars by truck remains the most efficient mode, both for national and cross border movements, in most cases. There are various underlying reasons for that. At national level, when transporting a car, the ‘last mile’ is always done by truck (i.e. to reach dealerships). At international level, road transport sometimes is the solution because infrastructure is missing and there is no rail network connecting certain areas of Europe. Also, for rail the sector needs to rely on block trains and therefore requires sufficient volume on any given route. Furthermore, rail capacity is sometimes insufficient in terms of slots assigned for car wagon trains or suffers from a lack of reliability and for this industry speed and reliability are paramount for the customers. About half of the valuable goods that ECG members transport cross EU internal borders. ECG members can therefore acknowledge the positive impact of the single market on their daily operations. They regret that a patchwork of rules remains in particular on weights and dimensions of road vehicles. For ECG members, making the road sector more efficient will be the best tool to green their operations. ECG is therefore advocating a standard minimum loaded length for car transporters in Europe of at least 20.75m to harmonise many of the existing national laws. The benefits of such a harmonisation will actually go beyond the car logistics sector and the internal market. It will result in less trucks on the road and will contribute to address the critical problem of driver shortage. Please see our position paper attached for more details. In essence, the reduction of CO2 emissions g/car-km is about 19.5% for trucks of loaded length of 20.75 metres with a load factor of 9 when compared with a load factor of 7 units (18.75 metres). This could save more than 276 K tonnes of CO2/year. It would represent more than a million tonnes of CO2 in 4 years with no extra cost for the citizen or the industry. The Commission can harvest this low hanging fruit via a basic adaptation of the 2015 Weights and Dimensions Directive on the very specific issue of loaded length for the car transport sector. Postponing this legislative revision would amount to a missed opportunity. This adaptation should therefore appear in the Strategy for a Sustainable and Smart Mobility.
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Meeting with Jocelyn Fajardo (Cabinet of Commissioner Violeta Bulc)

20 Mar 2018 · ECG Dinner-debate event

Meeting with Jocelyn Fajardo (Cabinet of Commissioner Violeta Bulc)

16 Jun 2017 · Mobility package and multimodal transport

Response to Electronic documents for freight transport

15 Jun 2017

ECG - The Association of European Vehicle Logistics - represents over 100 leading automotive logistics companies (ranging from family-owned SMEs to multi-nationals) from 27 countries across Europe, including the Western Balkans, Norway, Switzerland, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Turkey. Effectively using all modes of transport (though with a particular focus on a unique product, namely finished vehicles), ECG members own or operate over 500 car carrying ships, 16,000 purpose-built railway wagons, 25 river barges and over 22,000 specialist road transporters. We therefore very much welcome a Commission initiative to look at how it could support the further development and uptake of electronic documents for freight transport, of which this IIA is a first step, especially considering that 2018 has been designated the Year of Multimodal Transport. Overall we agree with the problem statement and proposed solutions to be studied further, as well as the main focus being on the lack of recognition and acceptance (mainly by Member States) as well as the need to further standardise e-documents to ensure the interoperability of different (modal) systems. While the use of e-documents in all modes should be looked at, we believe the current "low-hanging" fruit lies within the road transport sector which is why we have published a joint statement with the IRU on e-CMR (available on our website and also attached to this feedback form). In it we call for all European countries to ratify the 2008 e-CMR Protocol without delay, as there is no excuse - political or technical - not to do so. Some of the obvious benefits we see, which also count for all modes of transport: • A digitised transport chain requires less paper, so it is better for the environment. • e-documents save on printing costs. • The electronic application is multi-lingual, facilitating international transport and controls by national authorities. • Electronic documents are cheaper to process, with no costs implied for archiving. • Currently, paperwork gets processed only when drivers return to the office, whereas electronic documents can be handled in real time. • Improved supply chain visibility with electronic consignment notes could help enforce European laws, such as those in the road transport sector. ECG will continue supporting this Commission initiative, and aims to contribute with more specific input at the later stage of the stakeholder consultation.
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Meeting with Desiree Oen (Cabinet of Commissioner Violeta Bulc)

18 Apr 2016 · preparation dinner-debate on digitalisation of logistics