Happy birthday IRU! The World Road Transport Organization, the voice of more than 3.5 million road transport companies around the world, celebrates its 75th anniversary, “eyeing the mobility and logistics opportunities available to us “.
The International Road Transport Union was founded in Geneva on 23 March 1948. In the wake of the new United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, created the previous year, the IRU was created by eight national associations of road transport to partner with the United Nations and other government agencies to rebuild Europe’s war-torn transport and trade networks.
In the decades that followed, the IRU expanded to all corners of the world, representing, through its member national road transport associations in nearly 80 countries, the entire ecosystem of commercial road passenger transport. and goods, from small family businesses to large multinationals.
IRU President Radu Dinescu said: “The IRU has come a long way in 75 years, from reviving European trade in the late 1940s by building trust between former enemies, to today’s work on global issues ranging from safety and digitalization to driver shortages and decarbonization. The IRU is the global voice of an industry that really moves the world, day and night. Our mission for the future is to make mobility networks and supply chains even safer, more efficient and greener. »
One of the highlights of today’s celebrations is the TIR system, created by the IRU in its first year to speed trucks more efficiently across Europe’s war-torn borders. The system is still managed by the IRU, now under the TIR Convention, and is now the longest continuous public-private partnership of the United Nations.
Working closely with its Members, as well as with the UN and other global and regional authorities, the IRU has been at the forefront of many global road transport standards, from the transport of dangerous goods to the digitization of the legal framework for road freight operations. Many have become UN legal instruments over the decades.
The 75th anniversary of the IRU will be marked by a series of special events, starting on May 12 in Geneva. A special campaign for the 75th anniversary will be launched on the same day, highlighting the “New Industry Shapers”: unique individuals and innovators around the world who are leading the road transport sector into the future.
This article is originally published on trm24.fr
