Nicolette van der Jagt, Secretary General of the European Shippers Council

We welcome the debate on the future of European transport, but we should put the focus on freight and not on the modes.

Freight transport policy that attempts to meet environmental objectives has tended to focus on the impacts (positive and negative) of the modes of transport rather than on the freight and industry.

Industry objectives are being driven constantly by the need to reduce costs and improve efficiency; EU policy is being driven by the need for a competitive economy and increasingly by the need to address climate change. Industry and EU objectives may be driven by different principles but they equate to the same results in respect of transport: they both seek the minimizing of freight transport, more efficient transport and lower emissions. Industry must move materials and goods to supply production and markets: therefore freight transport is unavoidable.

The providers of freight services will and should adapt their operations in order to continually meet the needs of customers and the efficiencies they need. Working together, providers and customers can find the economically and environmentally sustainable solutions. Policies from government are only needed where there are barriers to delivering what is required. Policies that try and artificially force change by placing restrictions or penalties in the way will inevitably fail; policies which provide incentives (rather than sticks) and facilitate (e.g. through removal of regulatory barriers) industry and operators in moving to the sustainable options they need will be a success.

Policy makers must put freight first and foremost at the heart of their transport policies. In theory, one mode of freight transport may appear to have lower emissions than another, but if it fails to deliver the goods or increases emissions and costs over the whole door-to-door supply chain it will be a waste of time.