Founded in 1997 as the European Car-Transport Group of Interest, ECG (now known as the Association of European Vehicle Logistics) is a non-profit association to promote the interests of the finished vehicle logistics industry at EU-level. The Association represents around 100 leading vehicle logistics companies from 28 countries across Europe, including Georgia, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey.
ECG members provide transport, distribution, storage, preparation and post-production services to car manufacturers, importers, car rental companies and vehicle leasing operators. The members have an aggregate direct turnover of around €22.2billion and employ directly some 100,000 employees. Members are active in various transport modes: road, rail, maritime and inland waterways. They own or operate over 420 car carrying ships, some 18,800 purpose-built railway wagons, 84 river barges and more than 23,300 specialist road transporters. In total ECG represents approximately 80-85% of the finished vehicle logistics sector in Europe. (Data source: ECG Survey of Vehicle Logistics in Europe 2014/15).
ECG’s Brussels based secretariat works daily to fulfill the core mission of the Association, i.e. Information & Awareness; Education; Networking & Integration; Lobbying & Representation; and Standardisation. ECG is recognised by the EU institutions as the voice of its members within the EU’s decision-making procedures and is a member of several EC Expert Groups. ECG also facilitates non-commercial co-operation between member companies using different transport modes (road, rail, maritime and inland waterways), and assists them in sharing best practices regarding quality issues (for example via its ECG Operations Quality Manuals, which are widely recognised as standards in the industry).
ECG has numerous publications. One of the key publications is the ECG Survey of Vehicle Logistics in Europe, a 400+ page book which encompasses a country-by-country analysis of production sites and sales forecasts, as well as an industry outlook. It is published every two years.
ECG’s “Operations Quality Manual” is another very well-known and widely used publication among logistics service providers in our industry. This freely available document covers all aspects of the handling of cars and light commercial vehicles. It also has two sister-publications: one on the handling of commercial vehicles and another on the handling of high & heavy cargo.
Recently ECG has published book on ‘Finished Vehicle Logistics by Rail in Europe’. It represents a unique undertaking to approach the rail transport sector from the perspective of FVL, taking into account the complexity of European rail. It can be used as an instructive manual for those who wish to understand the complexities involved in moving freight by rail in Europe even if they have no prior knowledge.
Country: Belgium
To the website of ECG
Agreement no. 636071.