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MOTORINDIA
l
April 2012
119
IRU
meet discusses growing liabilities
for road transport operators
Some 60 legal professionals,
academics, transport operators
and policy makers from around
20 countries participated in the 9
th
IRU Symposium of Lawyers held
in Geneva to discuss the evolu-
tion of contractual relations in road
transport and its impact on the road
transport industry.
Chairing the symposium, the
President of the IRU Commission
on Legal Affairs (CAJ), Isabelle
BON-GARCIN, stressed: “The le-
gal regulations applicable to road
transport operators are becom-
ing increasingly complex. This
situation negatively impacts the
economy, road transport sector’s
productivity, operators’ return on
investment and the authorities’ ef-
ficiency and effectiveness in the en-
forcement of regulations.
In addition, recent economic and
technical developments have had
an influence on the contractual li-
ability of road transport operators,
just as social constraints and secu-
rity concerns have had an influence
on their criminal liability. As a re-
sult, transport operators, with the
help of IRU in many cases, must
find new ways to manage and re-
spond to these challenges”.
Participants identified that one of
the best ways to effectively address
these challenges is for road trans-
port operators to use internationally
standardised general conditions,
such as the IRU General Condi-
tions for the international carriage
of goods by road that set legal terms
regarding the respective liabilities
of the carrier, sender and consignee
of an international road carriage, as
well as other IRU tools such as IRU
model clauses, contracts and guide-
lines.
The symposium delegates also
concluded that governments should
better enforce all existing interna-
tional conventions relating to road
transport, conclude the UN Omni-
BUS agreement on international
regular bus and coach lines, give
systematic precedence to interna-
tional/multilateral standards and
models, where they exist, over
bilateral ones, and provide more
transparency in the implementation
and enforcement of legislation and
regulations.
w
road transportation
Isabelle BON-GARCIN, IRU Commission on Legal Affairs (CAJ)
Professional training, as provid-
ed by the IRU Academy, was also
identified as key to remaining
aware of, and compliant with the
latest legislative developments
impacting international road
transport operations.