Overview
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
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
Results
C.A.S.H. project has enhanced knowledge of working methods and created operational networks for police authorities. One of the most successful part of the C.A.S.H. project has been the numerous Joint Exercises (14), Staff Exchanges (22), trainings and workshops for authorities inspecting heavy goods vehicles. Also, numerous publications (17 public and 2 confidential reports and 13 notes in different languages) produced by universities, regional councils as well as police authorities around the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) have increased knowledge and raised awareness on the road transport safety and security questions.
According to C.A.S.H. key findings, day-to-day police work does not vary between countries. The most fundamental difference lies in the BSR countries' systems of legal sanctions; this calls for uniform regulations and penalties e.g. for securing of loads. Also, exchange of monitoring information on international transport operations should be intensified between authorities.
Cooperation and information exchange between the police and the logistics business should be increased for solving crime. In addition, cooperative meetings between the control authorities should be held regularly in order to chart problems associated with control operations and to develop legislation. Also, training of new heavy goods vehicles (HGV) drivers should be augmented with attitude education provided by the police, with the focus on safety issues. Harmonising training of enforcement officers is an important objective. This was initiated in C.A.S.H. project and work should continue towards this end. C.A.S.H. project provided a manual for competent authorities to conduct HGV inspections and guidelines for competent authorities to harmonise a common training structure relating to e.g. dangerous goods, load securing as well as control of driving and resting hours. It is also important to include training for different levels of operational staff.
C.A.S.H. also tested safety equipment and IT systems to be used by relevant authorities. The project recommends that exchanging test results on state-of-the-art equipment is more feasible than joint procurement. Long-term objective should be harmonisation of regulations and used control equipment regarding road freight transport in all Baltic Sea Region countries. In addition, enforcement authority should be involved in discussions with the parties offering technology at the product development stage. All these results have been disseminated to policymakers, relevant ministries, authorities and interest groups nationally and internationally in order to influence the future transport policy. For example, creation of operational networks, exchange of information and harmonisation of some parts of training have already been done in the BSR countries participating in the C.A.S.H. project.