Press release

Brussels supports extended trailers

Brussels, 11th February 2015

  • Representatives of the European Commission and Members of the European Parliament are convinced by the concept of the extended trailer
  • Economic and ecological benefits for the transport of commercial goods: fuel savings of over ten percent, more than ten percent less CO2 emissions, multi-modality and public acceptance

In various discussions with a variety of different European representatives and delegates of the Transport Committee, the forwarder Siegfried Serrahn, together with Kögel, explained the advantages of the trailer extended by 1.3 metres (total combined length 17.80 metres). All participants in the discussions were enthusiastic about the moderately extended semi-trailers as an innovative commercial goods transport concept.

Markus Ferber, Member of the European Parliament, Siegfried Serrahn and Volker Seitz, Director Business Development at Kögel, spoke in Brussels with the responsible high-level representatives of the European Commission, namely the General Director Mobility and Transport DG MOVE.

This was followed by meetings with the Parliamentary Spokesman of the Transport Committee of the European Parliament, Ismail Ertug, from the S&E Group, as well as the European Delegate of the EPP Group, Dr. Dieter-Lebrecht Koch and Jens Gieseke, who is also a member of the Environmental Committee. Mr Serrahn and Mr Seitz indicated the benefits of the trailer, extended by 1.3 metres: Extended trailers are particularly economical and environmentally-friendly in comparison with conventional semi-trailer combinations, because of the increased volume of up to 10 cubic metres. With stacked loading this allows you to transport up to eight more pallets, for example. This results in a substantial reduction in fuel consumption per pallet transported, in addition to the reduced traffic load. The ten percent lower CO2-emissions as compared with a standard trailer is confirmed by RWTH Aachen. A trailer extended by 1.3 metres also has a positive effect on road safety and does not need any additional investment in infrastructure: Existing parking spaces and emergency lay-bys can continued to be used without modification.

Gesine Meißner, from the ALDE Group, the European Delegate to the Transport Committee, also reaffirmed her support for this concept during a dinner discussion.

"In the discussions, both the representatives of the European Commission and the members of the European Parliament characterised the extended trailer asone of several fantastic concepts for innovative commercial goods transport of the future because it fulfils all the relevant requirements: sustainability, inter-modality, CO2reduction and public acceptance“, said Volker Seitz.

Photo 1, from left to right: Ismail Ertug, Siegfried Serrahn, Volker Seitz

Photo 2, from left to right: Volker Seitz, Dr. Dieter-Lebrecht Koch, Jens Gieseke, Siegfried Serrahn

Your contact for further questions about this press release:

Volker Seitz

Director of Communications/Marketing and Business Development

Tel + 49 82 85 88 – 12 3 06

Fax + 49 82 85 88 – 12 4 24

Patrick Wanner

Press Officer

Tel + 49 82 85 88 – 12 3 01

Fax + 49 82 85 88 – 12 2 84

Kögel is one of Europe's three leading trailer manufacturers. Since being established in 1934, the company has manufactured more than 500,000 trailers. With its commercial vehicles and solutions for forwarding companies and the construction industry, the company has been offering "Made in Germany" engineering quality for more than 80 years. During this period it has maintained its passion for transport and innovation, enabling it to offer proven, long-lasting added value to forwarding companies. The company headquarters and main production facility of Kögel Trailer GmbH & Co. KG are located in the Bavarian town of Burtenbach. In addition, Kögel also has factories and premises in Neu-Ulm (Germany), Duingen (Germany), Chocen (Czech Republic), Moscow (Russia), and St. Petersburg (Russia).

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