In Europe, demand for car transporters with big auto transport trucks is likely to increase, pending tax and duty reductions under the current TIR system imposed by the European Union (EU) and the European Commission (EC). This is in response to many “drive-away” cars—cars being driven from the dealer or manufacturer straight to the customer—being stolen by the drivers and posted on the black market. The solution is to exempt deliveries made by car transporters from the TIR system—in essence, not taxing cars coming from car transporters, or drastically lowering the taxes for them.

This is a good thing, namely because it will increase the number of owner-operators as well as transport trucks, leading to more jobs in the auto transport industry and also will help to slow down or stop the black-market trade in new, stolen vehicles. Will this mean longer transport times for customers? Sure. When a transport truck can only go 55 MPH, and the vehicle it’s transporting can go 60-70 MPH on European highways, chances are it’ll take a few more days. However, the increased security and the decrease in fraud and theft will more than pay for the lost time.