Portugal has joined the group of countries that have ratified the Additional Protocol to the CMR Convention concerning the Electronic Consignment Note. Portuguese carriers expect that the solution will bring great benefits.
The International Road Transport Union (IRU) and its member the Portuguese association of carriers ANTRAM, have announced Portugal’s accession to e-CMR. The government of the country ratified the Additional Protocol to the CMR Convention on 26 September this year.
Joining e-CMR, according to ANTRAM, will make Portuguese companies more efficient and transparent in their supply chain and help them to reduce costs.
e-CMR tests in Europe
This year, the first attempts of ADR transport with the use of electronic transport documents were made. The pilot transport of hazardous materials was carried out by Den Hartogh Logistics in April this year. The tests were conducted in cooperation with the Dutch Inspectorate of Environmental Protection and Transport (ILT). Currently, the Dutch are carrying out approx. 100 ADR transportations per day with the use of an electronic waybill. The system tested in the Netherlands is TransFollow:
This spring also saw the launch of a French-Dutch-British project that included the first-ever e-CMR transport across several borders. According to IRU (International Union of Transport), this transport was carried out by the French company Transports FIOLET. The route started in France, led through the Netherlands, from where the truck arrived by ferry to the UK. The TransFollow platform was also used during these tests.
The first cross-border e-CMR transport was carried out in early 2017. Then a truck with oranges belonging to Primafrio set off from Spanish Huelva, crossed the border with France in Perthus and reached Perpignan in France.
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