Call Sign December 2002 - Page 31 - IRU Taxi Group Meet At Maastricht

At the Maastricht meeting of the International Road Transport Union Taxi and Hire Car with Driver Group (IRU) held on October 10 and 11, 2002, a decision to develop minimum standards and opt for the EU-style 'Access to the profession' dominated the agenda.
Dial-a-Cab were unable to attend the meeting, however, it was attended by the IRU's Secretary-General Martin Marmy and Vice-President and President of IRU's Passenger Transport Council, Francesco Pacifico, who introduced the new Head of IRU's Passenger Transport Section, Jens Hügel and Marc Billiet, responsible for Passenger Transport at IRU's Brussels EU office, who will from now on be running the Taxi Group on the IRU side.
As part of a wider IRU policy to promote higher standards for access to the profession in all sectors of road transport, the
Taxi Group agreed to be included in a future EU directive governing access to the profession (based on the present criteria for the road haulage and coach-sector: professional competence, rules on good repute and financial capacity). It also launched a proposal to develop minimum standards for such rules.
"Some countries have

IRU Taxi Group Meet at Maastricht

IRU Taxi Group Meeting
Fourteen member-associations and 35 participants representing the taxi industry in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Austria, Hungary, Luxembourg and Bulgaria took part in this IRU meeting. DaC were unable to attend.

liberalised parts of their transport industry", said Jens Hügel, Head of IRU's Passenger Transport Section, "but in such a liberalised environment, to
safeguard the high quality of transport service, there needs to be clear rules of access to the profession. There can be no liberalisation without strict rules. Minimum standards in the access to the profession need to be set."
Existing practices in Germany, Austria and Sweden, where access to the taxi profession is already governed by the three EU criteria, show that this approach works well...
"Seen from the entrepreneurial side, international rules relating to the access to the

profession will guarantee a set of standards for our profession acrossEurope",saidJean-PaulGallé, President of the Taxi Group, "this will give the taxi industry a higher profile - essential in a drive towards higher quality and more customer-oriented services."
The Taxi Group will develop a draft set of rules based on the practices in these three countries. However, the amount stipulated for financial capacity might need adjusting upwards in some countries. Norway will also adopt these standards, whereas The Netherlands already applies two (except the financial capacity).

Wim Faber
IRU Press Office