The Ifo Institute in Munich and TÜV Automotive GmbH are carrying out a study on road circulation of off-road machinery in the EU, with a special focus on Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands. Portugal, Spain Sweden and the United Kingdom. The study is commissioned by the European Commission (Directorate General ENTERPRISE) and is objected to advise on the opportunity of introducing a new approach harmonising directive for self-propelled machinery (construction - and agricultural machinery, forklift trucks, mobile cranes etc.) that are used occasionally on public roads.
In order to support the objectives of the study it is highly important to get information of all the parties involved in design, production and homologation of this machinery. A broad and representative response to the inquiry is seen as a necessary prerequisite for the success of the study. Therefore the European and national federations of the industry1
agreed upon to carry out a survey and support this initiative.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call us. For your effort we would like to thank you very much in advance!
Please send the filled in questionnaire back to Dr. Hans-Günther Vieweg of the ifo Institute by electronic or ordinary mail (address see above)
Data protection
By German law (Datenschutz) we are obliged to keep all questionnaires under lock and key unless we are entitled to publication. Results of our analysis which are derived from information of three or fewer companies and which can provide insight into an individual company will neither be circulated nor published.
1
Committee for the European Construction Equipment (CECE), Comité Européen des Groupements de Constructeur du Machinisme Agricole (CEMA), Agricultural Research Center of Finland, Construction Equipment Association (CEA), Federation European de la Manutation (FEM), Syndicat Général des Constructeurs de Tracteurs et Machine Agricole (SYGMA), union des industries d’équipements pour la construction les infrastructure la métallurgie, (MTPS), Verband des Deutschen Maschinen- und Anlagebaus (VDMA), Unione Nazionale Costruttori Macchine Agricola (UNACOMA).
If national homologation, either Type Approval or Single Approval, for off-road machines is carried out not only by the manufacturer himself but also by his representative distributor for any of the above mentioned countries, please forward a copy of this questionnaire to this distributor.
The questions are outlined to be answered by manufacturers as well as by distributors. If you are unable to supply all the information which is asked for in this form, please leave out these parts and just give us the information you have.
General Information
1) Company ...
Brand names ... Independent company Yes No (delete wrong answer)
Subsidiary ... (Please indicate mother company, country of origin and kind of affiliation)
2) Contact person:
Name Function
Phone ... Fax ... E-Mail ... 3) Address:
Street ... Postal code ... City ... Post box ... Postal code ... City ... Country ...
4) Manufacturer Yes No (delete wrong answer)
Distributor Yes Countries: ... (Please also indicate your status as distributor)
Economic effects of a harmonised Regulatory System
For the assessment of your company’s excess costs which are caused by a non-harmonised National Regulatory System (NRS) within the EU, we ask you to provide some information. Further on, some questions are raised which are directed at the impact of a Harmonised Regulatory System (HRS) on the manufacturer’s competitiveness and macroeconomic effects.
A1) Categories of supplied off-road machinery ... ...
(Please indicate the sorts of machines which you sell, e.g. excavators, cranes, harvesters etc.)
A2) Total turnover in the business area off-road machinery ... EUR
(Please indicate billion, million or thousands in currency EURO.)
A3) Turnover with off-road machinery in EU Member States ... EUR A4) Regional distribution of EU turnover (A3) in per cent by Member State
A ... B/L ... D ... DK ... F ... GR ... I ... IRL ... NL ... P ... E ... S ... SF ... UK ...
(Please give only indicated estimates for the more important countries)
With regard to this business area, for the following questions we want to get some information on only one of your products, which is typical and – if possible – contributes much to the turnover/output of total off-road machinery business.
A5) Type of product ...(reference model) A6) Average yearly sales Numbers:... Turnover: ... EUR
(Please indicate billion, million or thousands in currency EURO, without related services.)
A7) Year of the introduction of the most recent model ... A8) Total life span for the most recent model until it is redesigned and a new roading
approval procedure has to be carried out ...years
Costs of the approval procedures
A9) Description of road approval procedures:
Country 1) Kind of procedure 2) Labour input 3) (Man-days)
Certification costs 4) (EUR)
Average time to carry out the complete approval procedure ... weeks
Average time to carry out the complete approval procedure ... weeks 1) If you carry out approval procedures in more than 2 countries, please copy the table.
2) Type approval -, single approval procedure, self certification etc. If possible, please discriminate by separable steps, e.g., noise, engine etc.
3) Direct administrative activity only without any changes in the design. These costs are asked below
4) Third party costs
Please indicate average cost figures for your administrative activity related to approval procedures:
A10) Direct costs for a man-day: ... EUR Overhead costs for a man-day ... % A11) Other costs per approval procedure (travelling, translation, changes of instruction
A12) The time to market is delayed by different national regulatory systems. To a certain extent the approval procedures are carried out parallel in EU Member States, but to a certain extent subsequently, e.g., because of the necessity to design a product due to the different requirements in the Member States. Please estimate – on average - how long it takes from the first approval activity in the first country to the last approval activity in the last country until you can speak of non-hampered sales opportunities for the off-road machinery within the Single Market. Due to your experience it takes about ... weeks, to conclude all road approval procedures (including the necessary time for country specific design)
A13) If there were a European harmonized regulatory system for off-road machinery, the market introduction of new products could be carried out simultaneously. Please indicate, if you would exploit the opportunity for simultaneous market introduction in most cases.
yes... no ...
A14) Due to the time spend for approval procedures the pay-back period of the
investment in product innovation is delayed. To estimate the costs we ask you to provide the following figures:
R&D expenditure as a share of total turnover ...% Investment in prototypes, tools, production machines, additional stocks (parts, components, final products) etc. necessary to launch a new product ... EUR
Costs for country wise specification of off-road machines
A15) The different national regulatory systems require that your company not only supplies one basic model (reference model) but ... variants to get access to EU markets, discrepancies are e.g. mirror, lightning, fixtures, speed regulators.
Countries Varying
elements1)
1) Variants derived from one basic model
In the following questions we want you to indicate the excess costs for the variants which are caused by additionally necessary input for all of the variants derived from a basic model for one specific market.
A16) Please indicate the excess expenditures by variants only and not the total costs (Distributors shall answer the questions only if they are involved in the approval process. In this case any activity and related cost is by definition excess expenditure):
Research & development ... EUR Design ... EUR Instruction manuals (only costs for variants, not translation) ... EUR Prototypes ... EUR Tools ... EUR A17) Please indicate average yearly expenditures induced by variants
(distributors need not answer the questions):
Set-up costs in manufacturing ... EUR Excess costs for additional current assets (capital costs, leakage etc.) ... EUR Excess costs for additional logistics (procurement etc.) ... EUR
Effects on competition
A European harmonised regulatory system will increase transparency and accessibility of Member States` markets
A18) Which concept do you expect to be most advantageous:
Kind of approach
Preference
1)European harmonizing regulation
Mutual recognition of national regulations
Kind of harmonization
Preference
1)New approach directive
(harmonization of machinery performance and self-or third party certification)Old approach directive
(harmonization of machinery design and third party certification)1) Please indicate the kind of approach and harmonization you prefer.
Please give some reason for your answer: ... ... A19) A EU harmonised regulatory system will have an impact on costs. They will be
increased ... unchanged ... reduced ... If possible quantify the expected change ... %
A20) A EU harmonised regulatory system will have an impact on prices. They will be increased ... unchanged ... reduced ... If possible quantify the expected change ... %
A21) For EU manufacturers a European harmonised regulatory system will have a positive ... no ... a negative ... impact on their competitiveness against manufacturers of third countries.
Macroeconomic effects
A22) Do you expect any other advantages or disadvantages of a European
harmonization of the regulatory system for off-road machines, in particular the access to third-country markets (overseas, CEE, CIS etc.)?
(If possible, give your kind of assessment and some explanation or examples)
... ... A23) A European harmonised regulatory system incorporates the potential for an
change of the price-efficiency-ratio. It will be
improved ... unchanged ... worsened ...
A24)
Does your company have any evidence of the impact of a price reduction on demand for off-road machinery (price elasticity). If yes:A change of prices by a given percentage will change the sales by numbers at a higher ... similar ... lower ... percentage.
A24) Do expect a European harmonized regulatory system will have a
positive ...
no
...
negative
...
impact on road safety.
(Please, give some explanation or examples for your assessment)
...
... Can you advice us to get further information on this topic for you country (statistics on accident and off-road machinery with roading approval; contact addresses)
... ... Please, send the questionnaire back to Dr. H.-G. Vieweg, ifo Institute (address see above).
Thank you very much for your support!!
