BGL: truck driving ban on Brenner axis threatens SMEs
The Bundesverband Güterkraftverkehr Logistik und Entsorgung (BGL, German freight transport association) has demanded that the EU take immediate action against the tightening of the sectoral driving ban on the Brenner transit route that entered into effect on 1 January 2020.
BGL points out that, in its present form, the ban threatens to cause supply shortfalls and bankruptcies among medium-sized transport companies, since it has now closed the Brenner Pass for virtually all trucks. According to BGL, the ban heralds the end of the EU’s single market.
The rola services praised by the Austrian state of Tyrol represent no valid alternative to road haulage, the freight transport association adds. A total of 2.4 million trucks cross the Brenner Pass every year, and the rola trains currently offer space for only 200,000 vehicles per annum. (ben)