In 2023, the chemical transport and logistics sector faced several geopolitical conflicts around the world which had an immediate and significant impact on the social and economic life in all EU countries.
ECTA members experienced declining and unpredictable transportation volumes, fluctuating fuel prices and high inflation rates. At the same time, Europe’s sustainability trend towards decarbonization of transport & logistics and the trend of digitalization continued to progress.

In 2023, several sustainability-related documents were published, including ISO 14083, the GLEC Framework 3.0, and EU Directives.

In this ECTA annual report, we discuss the progress made in 2023 as part of the ECTA Responsible Care (RC) Program while reflecting on the ECTA 2022 RC KPI’s.
As sustainability remains a key focal point for the next decade, ECTA launched in 2022 its Zero Emissions Knowledge Platform where information and expertise about sustainability solutions and trends are shared.
Additionally, as part of the ECTA Responsible care program, ECTA RC working group organised, for the first time in 2023, several free sustainability webinars focusing on zero emission best practices.

In 2023, ECTA continued its efforts around driver shortage, which remains a structural problem in the years to come. During the year, the ECTA Drivers App was developed with a pilot group of ECTA working group companies and truck drivers encouraged to rate loading/unloading locations.
In Q4 2023, this ECTA Driver App was rolled out to all ECTA members, and results are expected in the second half of 2024.

The ECTA digitalization workgroup continued their efforts towards more common industry data definitions and digital standards.
In 2023, the ECTA digitalization WG assisted in the publication of the ITCO best practice guideline on overseas transport visibility for bulk liquids.
The ECTA digitalization WG also organized its first 2 digitalization webinars to promote the use of the existing ECTA digital standards published since 2019.

In addition, ECLIC successfully launched its new electronic EFTCO Cleaning Document 2.0 industry solution. This eECD 2.0 digital industry standard will gradually replace the former paper ECD standard and the digital eECD 2.0 solution is now ready to be used by all stakeholders from Q4 2023.

We conclude this annual report with the update of the ECTA organization and ECTA members.

We very much appreciate the continued support from all our ECTA members and look forward to keeping our commitment to the goals of the European Chemical Transport Association.