The European EN 13044 standard names UIRR the International Union of combined Road-Rail transport companies as the administrator of the ILU owner code.
Founded in 1970, the International Union of combined Road-Rail transport companies, UIRR, currently represents 19 Combined Transport (CT)and terminal operators which carry out more than half of the volumes transported via Combined Transport in Europe. The main objective of UIRR is to have other modes of transport inserted into road transport-chains. Generally speaking, loading units (swap-bodies, containers or semi-trailers, 86% of the members’ transports) are transhipped with cranes onto special wagons. On some routes the forwarding of complete commercial vehicles (trucks with trailers) are also made possible using a special rail service called “Rolling Motorway” (14% of transports).
The UIRR Liaison Office in Brussels is responsible to advise European transport policy decision-makers on the advantages of road-rail Combined Transport and thereby contribute to the development of favourable framework conditions for this unique mode of transport.
UIRR coordinates its members’ activities through working groups and projects, as well as offers services which support the daily operations of Combined Transport, for instance in the field of standardisation and management of codes in order to facilitate the exchange of data between its members.