New PBS/prescriptive legislation for high performance vehicles in Uruguay

Signed by the President of the Republic of Uruguay on November 12th, the Decree N°303/2020 of the Ministry of Transport and Public Works (MTOP) authorising the circulation of High Performance Road Heavy Vehicles (Vehículos de transporte de cargas de Alto Desempeño, VAD in Spanish). was published yesterday and can be accessed, in Spanish, here.

In time, I hope to translate it into English and share it with you. The legislation is the result of a joint work between consultants with professional independence and proven international experience in Performance-Based Standards (PBS) and prescriptive legislation, local authorities with technical and legislative knowledge, a responsible business sector and a strong political will for the advancement of the development and implementation of a sustainable road transport legislation. Collaboration from the Inter-American Development Bank was key too.

I have written a little about how this work was progressing in my September 2019 newsletter, and the legislation is out one year later! We have written a paper for the next HVTT16 Symposium in China about the journey that brought this result to light, and we will share videos from observations in due time as well. You may have to hold your curiosity until next September.

Below are a few pictures with some HVTT Forum members who participated in the consultancy and travelled to Uruguay. Anthony Germanchev from ARRB (Australian Road Research Board) and his team simulated the different vehicles, but did not travel to Uruguay. I would also like to thank enormously other HVTT Forum members who provided knowledge and, experience and in some cases, like the case of San Luis Logistics and the Logistics Director of the forestry company UPM, also provided the vehicles and cargo for road observations. As I wrote above, this legislation is the result of the work of many people. I am so happy to belong to this Forum where I met all of you!

I look forward to meeting you in Qingdao next year. I am sure we shall have plenty to share there.

Ale Efron

HVTT Forum Vice President, Central and South America

John Woodrooffe, MTOP team, me, Bob Pearson, Willy Hughes. August 2019

Neal Lake, the MTOP Uruguay road vehicles and bridges team, Bob Pearson and myself. Feb 2019