4. Public awareness and incentives for ELV tracking and environmental risks
1. Background information
EReg, the Association of European Vehicle and Driver Registration Authorities, observed in the report on ELVs in 2009[1], that a relevant number of last owners of vehicles take their vehicles to illegal ELVs dismantlers. Furthermore, many of the vehicles no longer permitted to be used had been abandoned.
In other cases, the owners sell or dispose of their vehicles without producing any legal documents (e.g. a sales agreement or CoD).
At the same time, according to the ELV Directive (Article 5), MS shall ensure that the last holder and/or owner can deliver the end-of life vehicle to an ATF without any cost. The ATF provides the CoD to the holder and/or owner. The issued CoD is a condition for de-registration of an end-of life vehicle.
2. Key issues
Vehicle holders’ and owners’ behaviour indicates a low level of public awareness of the obligations to track vehicles because of the environmental risks that ELVs pose. It also shows that the last owners of vehicles are not aware of their duties, especially their obligation to de-register the vehicle.
Improper treatment of ELVs (described in section 3) poses environmental risks and loss of valuable resources.
It seems that many Member States have not yet established sufficient means to inform and motivate a vehicle’s last holder or owner to comply with the given legislation.
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[1] Rose, L., Pullen F. (2009): EReg Topic Group III, Vehicle end-of-life, Final V1.0, Association of European Vehicle and Driver Registration Authorities 24 July 2009