Transport Management 68

Put all motorists in a truck! What we have to give our northern neighbours credit for is that – in addition to a sometimes rather annoying assertiveness – they often manage to display a certain creativity, combined with a good dose of common sense. I recently came across two examples that perfectly illustrate this. TLN (Transport and Logistics Netherlands) proposed that every candidate motorist get behind the wheel of a truck for an hour. The aim of this proposal is to make motorists aware of the limitations and restrictions (particularly in terms of visibility) that such a giant road vehicle has to deal with. What's more: the Dutch transport sector is even prepared to finance this practical lesson. We Belgians can only take our hats off to that... Another example of the common sense that reigns above the Moerdijk: if transporters still want to actively use the police services, they will have to demonstrate that they have a preventive policy against crime. If this is not the case, their files will no longer be treated as a priority. And since the Dutch always work pragmatically, they have already listed a number of guidelines that must be respected in order to benefit from preferential treatment. Points of attention include a strict selection of personnel (a question of not putting the cat among the milk) or the obligation to use a secure truck parking area at night. This naturally places an additional burden on the shoulders of the carriers, but there are simply no 36 solutions to tackle the crime problem in the sector. To conclude, I would like to take this opportunity to announce the (re)birth of your favourite source of information. The programme naturally includes the latest news from the sector, both via news reports and video fragments. As specialists in the field – TRANSPORTMEDIA is also the producer of the programmes TRANSPORT.TV and LOGISTICS.TV on Kanaal Z – we wanted to offer real added value via a cross-media approach. You can also find the hottest news on our Twitter account (@tm_be), so don't hesitate to follow us on that social network! Enjoy reading this magazine and our new website!