The European Shippers' Council (ESC) has praised the European Commission (EC) on its action programme that it feels will improve efficiency and quality of freight transport in Europe.

ESC comments came in response to the EC's logistics and freight transport policy agenda issued on October 18.

"The ESC is especially pleased that the commission is placing the freight transport user at the heart of their activities," said ESC secretary general Nicolette van der Jagt.

"The commission states 'user requirements need to become the focus of the future', which is something we have been urging since the 2001 White Paper review of EU transport policy," she said.

Ms Van der Jagt also said that many of the EC's points of focus had long been areas of interest for the ESC, such as a single window and one-stop customs shop; development and use of generic service performance indicators for each and every mode; the simplification of customs requirements for short-sea shipping and a review of road freight vehicle weights that opens the door to longer and heavier vehicles.

The ESC also shared an interest in giving priority to rail freight services on key strategic rail freight corridors, making investments in rail freight capacity to enable longer and heavier trains and providing greater transparency in the area of "shadowy" port dues in relation to actual costs.

"We, within the ESC, know that there is a lot of work and continuing pressure required to get the results that are right for the users: the devil is always in the details," said Ms Van der Jagt.

The ESC represents the interests of 100,000 companies involved in international trade, within, to and from the EU.