ECG — 2025-06-13
News from ECG
The latest meeting of the ECG Quality Working Group took place on 11 June, bringing together a well-attended group of ECG members, partners and OEM representatives. We extend our sincere thanks to all participants, especially those who actively contributed to the engaging discussions.
Participants discussed a variety of topics, with key themes including compound management, maritime transport of Battery Electric vehicles, road transport and feedback from ECG events.
Compound Management and Logistics
Regarding compound operations, Gaëlle Fleurigeon from Renault provided a good practice example for washing the Australia-bound vehicles in order to remove pollen and avoid the vehicles being quarantined upon arrival. Noatum proposed to develop good practices for the truck reception in ports and inland compounds, encompassing vehicle delivery and reception processes (picking of the cars by the driver vs. load preparation; how to manage waiting times; vehicles not picked up); reception of the truck (e-gate applied or not); rest area for the drivers, etc. The attendees agreed that this area might benefit from some standardisation so the group will be working on this, also taking into account what the Health & Safety Working Group has already accomplished in the Safe yard design document.
Timo Pasila of C.A.R. Consulting gave a brief overview on the current status of AI being used for damage recognition and classification. Timo emphasized that, depending on the confidence level of the technology, the amount of false positive results and the false negatives will vary. What he sees as a prerequisite of the more widespread application of AI for vehicle inspection is the use of vehicle condition capture devices all long the supply chain via which all exceptions (i.e. damages) are correctly labelled and thus a feedback is given to the algorithm. This continuous feedback loop is essential for the technology’s advancement. For further insight, members encouraged to consult ECG’s recommendations from the Digital Vehicle Handover project, available on the ECG website.
Global collaboration
The attendees received a brief overview of the ‘European delegation’ consisting of members and partners that ECG brought to China to attend the CALA Conference. Quality Group chair Artur Allende (Noatum Automotive), Mark Morgan (UCM Global) and Emmanuele Mottola (BallSystem) gave their impressions as they were part of the delegation. They all praised the opportunity to go there as part of a delegation and emphasized the need for collaboration at a global level, among regional associations, like CALA and AIAG. They noted that a future important topic could be to spread the knowledge on the global damage codes, developed by AIAG.
Update on the VDI Guidelines
Szilvi Kiss also reported back from the ECG General Assembly in Cascais where interactive questions were asked from the participants. One of the challenges highlighted was the VDI Guidelines on lashing of vehicles on car carriers. ECG commissioned a legal opinion from a German law firm, which offers useful guidance for truck operators. ECG aims to develop European lashing guidelines and will update members on progress. Until then, all information, including an anonymous reporting form, is available on our website.
Maritime Transport of Battery Electric Vehicles
Attendees received updates on the activities of a dedicated sub-group of shipping lines, focusing on the maritime transport of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). The manual on BEV handling will be published soon – in the meantime some other useful documentation is already available on the ECG website:
ECG compiled a table in 2023 summarizing the State of Charge requirements for the shipping lines, as well as the SoC level of BEVs applied in the supply chain by the OEMs. The attendees deemed it would be useful to have a revision of the table as the requirements for charge levels by the OEMs might have changed since then.
Upcoming events
Jovana Vancevska and Szilvi Kiss informed the attendees that, based on the success of the joint Quality and Maritime & Ports Working Group meeting in January in Zeebrugge, ECG will hold a similar gathering next year. We are planning for an Operational event in Cuxhaven and Bremerhaven in February 2026, supported by the two local hosts: Cuxport and BLG Automotive Logistics. Further details will come in due course but what we can already say: attendees will need their high viz jacket!
The next Quality Working Group meeting is scheduled for November 2025, with the exact date and venue to be confirmed. For further information or to get involved in the group’s activities, please contact Szilvi Kiss.