In order to thank us on behalf of the European Commission and Mrs Ursula von der Leyen for our part in opening up European borders with our covid congestions map, we were visited by Mr Henrik Hololei, the Director-General for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission this week.
Over a couple of hours of very interesting discussions in our Tallinn office, we covered a variety of topics on the future of transportation and technologies related to it.
The main theme of the conversation was the environment. Road transport usage, and its heavy carbon footprint, have been steadily growing in Europe. The main reason behind this trend is the complexity and lack of innovation in the field of rail, river or sea transportation. At the same time, both carriers and shippers show increasing interest in intermodal logistics, which often leads to a dramatic CO₂ emission reduction. Simpler booking, loading, tracking and billing of both local and cross-border rail or ferry operations has to be encouraged across the EU.
Another key topic was the possible shift towards hydrogen-centric energy infrastructure, the requirements for it to actually happen, and the positive impact it would bring across various industries. We agreed that this shift can be accelerated by pushing open data initiatives and making governments’ data available for everyone. For instance, by making emission data about particular vehicles more readily available for all the stakeholders in the supply chain, we can help consumers make environmentally friendly choices and increase awareness about the current status quo.
It was a pleasure to exchange ideas with people with such in-depth understanding of the subject matter like Henrik Hololei and his team. We were happy to see that Europe is heavily committed to reducing CO₂ emissions, optimizing logistics and digitizing industries — just like us.
Over a couple of hours of very interesting discussions in our Tallinn office, we covered a variety of topics on the future of transportation and technologies related to it.
The main theme of the conversation was the environment. Road transport usage, and its heavy carbon footprint, have been steadily growing in Europe. The main reason behind this trend is the complexity and lack of innovation in the field of rail, river or sea transportation. At the same time, both carriers and shippers show increasing interest in intermodal logistics, which often leads to a dramatic CO₂ emission reduction. Simpler booking, loading, tracking and billing of both local and cross-border rail or ferry operations has to be encouraged across the EU.
Another key topic was the possible shift towards hydrogen-centric energy infrastructure, the requirements for it to actually happen, and the positive impact it would bring across various industries. We agreed that this shift can be accelerated by pushing open data initiatives and making governments’ data available for everyone. For instance, by making emission data about particular vehicles more readily available for all the stakeholders in the supply chain, we can help consumers make environmentally friendly choices and increase awareness about the current status quo.
It was a pleasure to exchange ideas with people with such in-depth understanding of the subject matter like Henrik Hololei and his team. We were happy to see that Europe is heavily committed to reducing CO₂ emissions, optimizing logistics and digitizing industries — just like us.