ECO Regular Monitoring of Trucks in partnership with IRU NELTI-3” (ECO RMT/NELTI-3)
One of the main stated objectives of the ECO is to promote economic cooperation and trade throughout the ECO region by facilitating transport, notably international road transport, as a key to sustainable development and integration with the world markets. With this view, priority is being given to:
Improving the performance of the road transport industry, in particular international road transport;
Assisting the Member States’ governments in improving, facilitating and harmonising customs procedures and the conditions of international road transport;
Supporting the development of an efficient transport network system.
As one of the first steps towards these goals, it is crucial to obtain actual information about the conditions of international road transport, such as border waiting times, customs procedures, controls and roadside checks as well as existing transport infrastructure along major transport corridors in the ECO region so that real impediments can be identified and right solutions can be implemented to remove or reduce physical and non-physical barriers to road transport.
In this context, the ECO and the International Road Transport Union organized in 2010 the ECO-IRU Silk Road Truck Caravan with the participation of eight ECO Member States. The successful results of this Project were noted by the leaders of the ECO Member States at the 11th ECO Summit Meeting (Istanbul, December 2010), who called upon all the relevant parties to implement the regular runs of the truck caravans in the ECO region in 2011.
In order to meet this specific instruction of the ECO Heads of State and in true public-private partnership, the ECO and the IRU agreed to cooperate on a new joint project named ECO Regular Monitoring of Trucks in partnership with IRU NELTI-3” (ECO RMT/NELTI-3)
The ECO RMT/NELTI-3 project consists of collecting and analysing data about the current conditions of international road transport faced by professional truck drivers during international commercial cargo deliveries. This data will be collected through special questionnaires and logbooks to be filled in by drivers of the participating companies from 10 ECO Member States. The UNESCAP Time-Distance-Cost methodology shall be applied for analysing the collected data.
In fact, the IRU’s New Eurasian Land Transport Initiative (NELTI) project monitored the actual movements of trucks carrying commercial cargo across the UNECE-UNESCAP Euro-Asian Transport Linkages in 2008-2009. The second phase of this project, NELTI-2, has been implemented by the IRU in partnership with the Asian Development Bank.
The ECO RMT/NELTI-3 project is regarded as continuation of the ECO-IRU Silk Road Truck Caravan and takes into account the importance of strict implementation and need for further expansion of the TIR system in the ECO region and the common interest of the ECO and the IRU to establish a regional road transport permit or licence system similar with the European best practices. The project, launched in June 2011, shall continue until 31st January 2012, with a possible subsequent extension for 24 months.
