The Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has asked the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) for help in assessing the effects of new EU rules on animal transport, due to start on January 5, 2007, according to CV Transport News Brief.
There are two new sets of standards, one to cover horse transporters and another to cover farm animal transport trucks and they affect both new and in-service vehicles.
DEFRA wants comments on the practicality and costs of building livestock transporters to Regulation 1/2005 standards or upgrading existing trucks to meet them.
“This one is important for bodybuilders and animal transport operators as the new rules are effectively retrospective, meaning that all livestock transport trucks, old or new, will have too meet the new standard,” said SMMT’s technical department. “In particular we’d like to hear from bodybuilders as they need to understand all the implications for their own and their customers businesses.”