BVF and UNI VDL: Current cultivation of contacts with other trade associations
According to its articles of association the objectives of the TIV include seeking cooperation with other trade associations, and also especially as a result of this, to represent the joint professional and economic policy concerns of the trailer manufacturers and their suppliers. The TIV board seeks continuous dialogue with other industry associations to this end.
On Friday, January 13, 2017, the board of the TIV, represented by Mr Jursch and Dr. Meyer, attending a meeting in Berlin with the chairmen of the Bundesvereinigung der Fahrlehrerverbände e.V. (German Association of Driver Training Associations) (BVF). The objective was to intensify the dialogue initiated in Stuttgart at our first meeting in December 2016, and to discuss the possibilities of cooperation.
Mr von Bressensdorf, the founding chairman of BVF, as well as his two deputies, Mr Quentin and Mr Bartels, gave the TIV board members a very friendly welcome at their association’s premises at the Alboinstraße in Berlin. The meeting that lasted some two and a half hours can be summarised as follows: Both associations will, where they share common interests, inform each other about current developments, coordinate their actions if necessary to outwardly project a uniform position, and in particular cooperate with each other at a European level. The two associations have quite a few common concerns. Not only do trailer manufacturers suffer from the complex EU driving license regulations, but the driving schools also do because they have to provide a large number of vehicles, a large number of which cannot be operated economically.
We have also been in contact with a further interest group of late. On Tuesday, February 7, 2017, Dr. Meyer attended a meeting with Caroline Nagiel and Hervé Gautier, the managing director and the senior technical officer of the French industrial association UNI VDL. It has now been representing the concerns of the caravan and trailer manufacturers to the west of the Rhine for many decades. In the course of the meeting that lasted almost four hours and which took place in a pleasant atmosphere at UNI VDL's premises in Paris, the two representatives of the French association indicated their willingness to support and cooperate with the TIV. In Brussels, in particular, there are a wide range of potential areas of cooperation.