current ecta focus areas
ECTA’s mission is to set standards for the transport and logistics of chemical goods in Europe and the goal is about improving efficiency, safety and security, as well as the environmental and social impacts of the industry.
Take a look into our current ECTA focus areas and read about the latest updates!
Weights and Dimensions Directive
The previous proposal given by DG Move did not gain support from the Member States.
An important point is the regulation of 44 to for cross-border transport. The new proposal which is currently in Trilogue, should be available for ZEVs.
Furthermore, the use of EMS seems to be facilitated.
ECTA contests that wider acceptance of longer and heavier vehicles may have no impact on the goal of modal shift from road to rail.
Combined Transport Directive
The end of 2025 was marked by political uncertainty regarding the Combined Transport Directive (92/106).
The European Commission indicated the intention to withdraw the proposed revision to the Directive. The European Parliament with a majority of the Transport Committee confirmed a strong wish to keep the dossier alive and continue working on it.
Actually the process is paused even if the European Parliament confirmed a future process.
The actual presidency of the Council Cyprus does not have the C.T. Revision on their agenda and most probably the following presidency – Ireland – neither.
ECTA claims a modernised Combined Transport Directive as the actual one from 1992 is no longer made to support and accelerate the modal shift from road to rail.
social
The persistent driver shortage poses an escalating risk to supply chain resilience. Without immediate action, continuity of supply and delivery will be compromised, and the industry’s competitiveness will suffer.
It is of fundamental importance to keep jobs in the transport and logistics sector attractive. ECTA supports initiatives for safe parking areas and better working conditions at shippers’ premises.
The ECTA Drivers APP gives drivers a voice and helps ECTA to identify good practices as well negative examples including near misses.
ECTA as a founding member of Women in Logistics fully supports its aims.
Greening Fleet
Legislators should strike a careful balance between decarbonization goals and the economic realities by imposing investments in Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV).
The Commission proposal to implement an obligatory purchase mandate for ZEV has been stopped for trucks (actually). It will be implemented for commercial cars and vans only – as a first step.
ECTA follows this discussion very closely. With the successful implementation of the first step a roll out to HGV is not excluded.
Measures for combined transport
Individual national approaches to infrastructure capacity and traffic management lead to inefficiencies and delays in cross border operations. As a consequence, cross-border rail freight flows remain unreliable and contribute to a reverse modal shift.
ECTA strives for a systematic and active involvement of all stakeholders in capacity planning and performance reviews through the European Railway Platform. Other solutions, include but are not limited to, to exclude combined transport road legs from weekend driving bans (including the movement of empty containers) and target economic support towards reducing terminal handling costs and rail infrastructure charges.
VECTO Trailer Regulation
With EU Directive 2024/1610 and the previous Directive EU 2022/1362 the construction of trailer (Tautliner and Boxtrailer) has to contribute in the reduction of CO2 emissions. By 2030 trailer have to reduce the emissions by 10% on the actual CO2emission per tonne/km.
To achieve this goal the trailer design has to be optimized through weight reduction, reducing tire rolling-resistance and better aerodynamics.
Of the three parameters mentioned, the one with the highest impact is aerodynamics. Trailers need to be equipped with side windshields etc.
As a consequence these trailer cannot be used for combined transport (rail and/or short-sea) anymore.
Actually there is a chance to revise the existing regulation as a working group was established.
ECTA will intervene together with trailer manufacturer and UIRR in the forefront.
Digitalization
ECTA has continued commitment to digitalization, digital collaboration and interoperability in chemical logistics across Europe. ECTA runs an own ECTA digitalization workgroup that is focusing on digital best practice standards and strives to have these data standards implemented to reduce the IT connectivity complexity. Furthermore ECTA supports any “on going” industry digitalization workgroups initiatives or projects in Chemical logistics that might need attention from its ECTA members and works closely together with other industry associations like Cefic, UIRR, EPCA to have better digital alignment across transport modes and stakeholders groups and actively participate in their working groups and meetings.
For the period January 2026 – December 2026, the digitalization workgroup will focus on the following topics:
- Review and publicize a revised version of the ECTA best practice guideline related to equipment data standards
- Finalise the publication of the Cefic–ECTA-ECLIC digital collaboration survey results and further derive any actions or follow up topics from the survey.
- Continue to monitor and promote existing ECTA digital standards, including the newly developed 2025 intermodal UIRR–ECTA–ERFA digital standards
- Follow up on the eFTI4Chem use case (if granted) which is part of a newly formed consortium and the Horizon Europe call HORIZON‑CL5‑2026‑01‑D6‑08, supported by the industry associations IRU, ECTA, UIRR, ECLIC, Cefic
- Contribute to the organization and set-up of at least 2 digitalization webinars:
- The first webinar is defined around Cybersecurity/NIS2 in close collaboration with ECTA RC.
- Other potential webinar topics could be to share learnings and best practices on:
- how AI solutions can bring value in logistics operations to eliminate typing work and automate processes.
- ECTA membership testimonials on how to apply the ECTA standards and based upon “on going” projects
- UIRR-ECTA-ERFA webinar on digital best practice intermodal guidelines with practical testimonials (hosted by UIRR)
- Channel questions and share learnings derived from specific digital projects across Europe such as:
- UIRR Bridge project (= UIRR driven eFTI Intermodal project also supported by ECTA)
- Data standards alignment based upon practical digital project implementations (e.g. BASF Boost LU project presented at the ECTA annual meeting)
- Address any ECLIC eECD project e-document questions like eECD (EFTCO standards) and eCMR (eFTI standards)
- Further follow up and track the legal and operational requirements of a new administrative control document (DCA) required in Spain as of October, 5 2026
Women in Logistics
As a founding member of WIL, ECTA further supports the Women in Logistics initiative and strives for a better male/female gender balance in 3 focus area’s being “Truck drivers”, “Logistics Operators” and “Logistics leadership positions”.
ECTA has a seat in the monthly WIL board meetings and contributes actively to WIL membership engagement, WIL networking, WIL communications (e.g. best practice sharing, surveys, newsletters, etc.). In future ECTA might further support WIL by providing gender related KPI’s be it via the ECTA RC KPI program or the ECTA Drivers APP.
Best practice guidelines
We are in the final stages of reviewing two of the existing guidelines; Subcontractor Management and Safe Loading & Unloading of Road Freight Vehicles. These are expected to be published by the summer 2026.
Work is also underway to create a guideline for the risk assessment of ZEVs (battery & hydrogen) going into loading and unloading plants. Contributions from technical experts and vehicle manufacturers are being sought and ECTA also sit on this working group to ensure any concerns that drivers may have can be answered.
Our intention is to also review the Load Securing guidance for packed goods and to develop a new guideline covering the safe operation of Ground Operated Vent Valves. Working groups for both of these will need to be set up and so please get in touch if you are interested in contributing.
Responsible Care KPIs for 2025
Once again, all of our RC members managed to submit their annual KPIs by the deadline of end of February 2026 which was a good effort. This allows us now to start analysing the data and picking out any highlights, patterns or trends. The full analysis will be shared with the ECTA Board in June 2026 and then presented at the RC Workshop/training event.