Malta has been a trading hub for millennia. Trade, and the transport networks that feed it, are deeply embedded in the DNA of the islands and its people.
Transport is often talked about in terms of modes: land, sea, air and water, each appearing to operate independently. The reality is that all modes work together for almost all journeys, whether for goods in supply chains or passengers in mobility networks.
Malta is an excellent example. Land and sea work together in harmony to bring goods from overseas to the people and businesses of Malta, and to export Maltese goods back to the world.
At the heart of this huge and ongoing logistics operation are trucks and trailers. Trailers are loaded in countries, in the European Union and further afield, attached to a truck, known in the industry as a tractor, and driven to a port. The trailer is loaded onto a ship, met on arrival in Malta and driven to its final destination by another truck.
Malta may be a small group of islands, but in this sense, it is no different to any other country, from the smallest island nation to the largest landlocked country: all are dependent on trucks.
Commercial road transport – including the haulage firms that run the truck and trailer services that keep Malta supplied with food, medicines, and other essentials – has always been at the heart of economic and social prosperity.
IRU, the world road transport organisation, where I’ve had the honour of working at for 29 years – the past ten as its Secretary General – represents this crucial industry at a global level.
We are the voice of more than 3.5 million companies operating mobility and logistics services worldwide, including almost one million in the EU and dozens in Malta.
We work closely with national transport associations to support and advance road transport, including with our Maltese member, the Association of the Tractor and Trailer Operators (ATTO).
ATTO represents the road haulage firms of Malta, which carry 80% of land exports and imports to and from the country. IRU and ATTO work closely together, ensuring Malta’s voice on EU transport rules and regulations is heard in Brussels, and on the wider global stage.
ATTO defends Malta’s haulage firms, and indeed the broader economic and social interests of Malta, in how new EU legislation is developed and how existing EU rules are implemented and enforced.
A good example has been the recent introduction of the so-called “Mobility Package” of EU laws two years ago on road freight transport markets and driver working conditions.
Malta’s unique transport requirements were incorporated into the EU’s legislative package and, together with ATTO, we continue to work on implementation issues to ensure that Maltese companies have a voice in how the rules are applied.
We are proud to have ATTO as a member of our global family, working together to make road transport safer, more efficient and greener for the people, communities and economies that depend on it, in Malta, in Europe, and beyond.