From left to right: Alexandre LECEA, PDG of the FAL Group; Péroline CORDONIER, FAL Group; Kristian Schmidt, Director for Land Transport at the European Commission.

FRENCH TRUCK ETAPE BEZIERS WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED EUROPEAN TRUCK PARKING OF THE YEAR 2022 – LA LONDONIENNE (FRANCE) AND SMART AUTOHOF (ROMANIA) WERE VOTED RUNNERS UP

The French Truck Etape Béziers parking facility was voted European Truck Parking of the Year 2022 by ESPORG’s international jury[1], composed of representatives of leading road transport stakeholders and governmental and non-governmental institutions and bodies.

In particular, the jury commended the completeness and excellence of the winner’s service offer to drivers and attention to the smallest details, including environment, health, recreation, affordability, and indeed individual care to every single driver.

Antoine Lecea, PDG of the FAL Group, said: “Located next to the main traffic arteries North/South of Europe (highway A9) for heavy trucks, 150 km from the Spanish border (La Junquera) with more than 15 000 trucks crossing the area daily, we bring to our truck drivers friends the maximum of security for them and for their trucks. We try to personalize the greeting of our drivers by offering them the best facilities for catering, hygiene and leisure.
All our teams and myself are delighted to receive this distinction and we thank the jury for choosing us as the laureate of the EUROPEAN PARKING OF THE YEAR 2022 award.
This award will encourage us even more to pursue the development of services in our parking.”

Kristian Schmidt, Director for Land Transport at the European Commission said: “The quality of this truck parking is truly impressive! Such well-equipped truck-parking infrastructure should become the norm in Europe and not an exception. Truck drivers in Europe deserve safe and comfortable rest facilities when transporting goods to our homes, shops and businesses. Such facilities will certainly make trucking jobs more attractive, especially for young people and for women. The EU will continue supporting the development of safe and secure truck parking areas. They are crucial not only for eliminating criminality against drivers and cargo but also to ensure drivers are well-rested, healthy, connected and satisfied with their working conditions.”

The jury also commended the parking facilities La Londonienne in France and Smart Autohof in Romania for the quality and completeness of their service and exceptional customer care, and awarded them with the European Excellence in Truck Parking 2022 Runner-up certificate.

At today’s Award Ceremony, Michael Nielsen, President of ESPORG, commented: “The international jury had a truly difficult job in selecting one winner from a number of outstanding candidates, which not only respect European standards for safe and secure parking, but go the extra mile to offer the best service to our drivers. We are proud of our winner and runners-up, but we are also proud of all our candidates, for their outstanding achievement and quality of services to professional drivers. This bodes well for the future and for the achievement of our policy and business objective, to see a doubling in the number of safe and secure truck parking spots in Europe in the next 2-3 years.”

The aim of the ESPORG Excellence in Truck Parking Award is to promote excellence and to help spread good practices in view of improving safety, security and quality of services offered by truck parking operators to professional truck drivers across Europe and beyond, and, by doing so, to enhance the attractiveness and appeal of the driver profession to an increasingly diverse and wider public, including young people and women.

Dirk Penasse, General Manager of ESPORG, concluded: “We are extremely satisfied that even in the first edition eight superb candidates entered the final race. Congratulations to the winners, but also to the rest of the candidates, which have all shown that we care about the drivers, we care about our profession, we care about our environment. We are looking forward to another batch of excellent candidates to select the European Truck Parking of the Year 2023 in February next year.”

• For more information, please contact:
  • ESPORG General Manager, Dirk Penasse, at penasse@esporg.eu, phone: +32 487 48 74 87.
  • Winner, PDG FAL Group, Antoine Lecea, at lecea@gpfal.fr, phone +33 4 68 27 27 27.

The winner’s dossier can be accessed via our ESPORG website or via the following link: https://www.esporg.eu/?page_id=10307

[1] The jury members are: Inès MAILLART, DG MOVE of the European Commission, Elene SHATBERASHVILI, International Transport Forum (ITF), Constantino CANU, CLECAT, Mike STURGEON, ECG, Carlo GIRO, IRU, Marco DIGIOIA, UETR, Peter Paul RUSCHIN, DEKRA, Anna KUZYNIN, TRUCKERSLIFE, Godfried SMIT, European Shippers Council, and Marc van GROOTEL, TVM.