Members‘ Meeting

A cordial welcome!

Our members‘ meeting takes place in Berlin on 14th/15th June. The list of acceptances is long and promises an interesting sector meeting, among other things with a lofty evening event at the television tower! Last-minute latecomers are still welcome.

Advance notice requested.

Driving Licences and Trailers

2nd meeting with members of the Bundestag

On 18th May we and our Brussels representative, Mr Thomas Philipp Reiter, met up for the second time with parliament members as part of a parliamentary breakfast in Berlin. As in 2017 Chair Dr. Uwe Meyer outlined the complicated European driving licence law from the perspective of the trailer branch, in particular the inconsistencies of driving licence class B, and repeated the concrete proposal to reform the Trailer Industry Association: Ideal, of course, would be a return to the old class 3 driving licence expanded to include four axle combinations.

The TIV has set as a minimum goal an expansion of driving licence B so that this automatically and without additional costs covers the current driving licence B96, e.g. future driver training to contain an obligatory trailer module in theory and practice.

At the meeting we also spoke at length with the Bundestag MP and 1st Chairman of the Federal Association: Liberal Entrepreneurs Thomas L. Kemmerich (FDP) from the Erfurt constituency, who is on the Bundestag‘s economic committee and has promised us his active support. It is planned, among other things, to pool the interests of the TIV with those, for example, of campers, riders and the craftsmen.

Driving Licence Reform

The TIV is preparing an information pack based on the presentation made by Dr. Meyer to lend further weight to our „concrete proposal at a time when urgent reform is needed“: Expansion of the driving licence class B to include class B96 or a return to the legal situation of the FS class 3. We ask you to help us by contacting the member of parliament in your region.

Important Information on Automotive Technology

Meeting of the Chassis Work Group on 15th March

Customs duties, some of them not inconsiderable, will be levied retroactively from 1st February on truck tyres of a load index >121 Made in China.  Interesting point here is that this could also be relevant for car tyres in 2019.

The members‘ meeting of the TIV has responded to the range of opinions held within the association by holding a vote to determine which opinion the members have on the topic of „self-adjusting brakes“ – yes or no.

Recommendations of the Work Groups

The legal position is unclear: While ECE-R55 clearly regulates this in the points 1.5 („The manufacturers of mounts must mounting points for ancillary couplings or devices that are required for an automatic stopping of the trailer should the main coupling fail. […]“) and 1.5.1, the VO 94/20/EGA makes no reference to this. It needs to be established that not all trailer couplings have the mounting point required by ECE-R55 1.5. There are different national regulations governing the lasso-like throwing over of arrestor cable for an unbraked or breakaway cable for braked trailers via the ball neck.

The work group recommends that manufacturers of cars observe ECE-R55 1.5 and 1.5.1 by, insofar as not already existing, accommodating the required mounting point on the mounts.

ECE-R55 1.5.1: „The mounting points for an ancillary coupling and/or a breakaway cable must be arranged so that the ancillary coupling or the breakaway cable do not restrict the normal movement of the coupling or do not impair the normal functioning of the overrun brake system. A single mounting point is to be located within 100mm on a vertical surface running through the centre of movement of the coupling. If this is not possible, one mounting point each should be located both sides of the vertical axis and in the same distance to it (max 250 mm). This/These mounting point(s) is/are to be located as far behind and above as possible.“