C.A.S.H. = Connecting Authorities for Safer Heavy Goods Traffic in the Baltic Sea Region

Sector: transport

Theme: Making international road freight transport safer

Geographical area: Baltic Sea region (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Norway and Sweden)

The C.A.S.H. project aimed to develop practical solutions to make international road freight transport safer, more predictable and affordable in the Baltic Sea region. The project intended to do this by:

• improving co-operation between authorities
• harmonising training of inspection officials
• testing safety equipment and IT systems to be used by relevant authorities

The project aimed to benefit not only the authorities inspecting the traffic through harmonised practices, but logistics business as a whole. With about one million road haulage companies in Europe and over 560,000 million tonkilometer of goods transported annually on the roads of the Baltic Sea region, the road freight transport is big business. Despite similar regulations, authorities in European countries may apply different practices and equipment to inspect the traffic. This puts additional pressure on road haulage companies that have to comply with regulations when they are already facing the challenges of a very competitive market. In addition, more than 1,300 fatalities involving a heavy vehicle took place in the Baltic Sea region in 2007, equal to 10 % of all accidents. This is why 13 organisations from eight countries in the Baltic Sea area created the C.A.S.H. project. It was co-ordinated by Turku School of Economics in Finland, as part of University of Turku. C.A.S.H. project had a budget of EUR 3.4 million and ran for three years, from September 2009 to September 2012.

The C.A.S.H. project brought together police officers and other authorities inspecting Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) in the Baltic Sea area, in order to spread good inspection practices across the region. The C.A.S.H. project partnership was made up of 13 organisations in eight countries around the Baltic Sea region, including:

• police and other authorities dealing with road traffic safety
• regional councils
• research institutes

Participating countries and organisations included the following: 

Denmark: Danish National Police

Estonia: Police- and Border Guard Board

Finland: Police of Finland

• Regional Council of South Karelia
• Regional Council of Kymenlaakso
• Regional Council of Southwest Finland
• Turku School of Economics, University of Turku

Germany: Hamburg Waterways Police

• Hamburg University of Technology

Latvia: Latvian Transport Development and Education Association

Lithuania: Vilnius Gedimino Technical University

Norway: Norwegian Mobile Police Service

Sweden: Swedish National Police Board