The General Contract of Use (GCU), including its appendices, sets out the conditions for the provision of wagons for use as a means of transport by RUs in national and international traffic within the scope of application of the COTIF in force. Commercial conditions for the use of wagons are outside the scope of this contract. The provisions of this contract shall apply to wagon keepers and RUs as users of wagons. Use of a wagon includes the loaded run and the empty run, as well as cases in which the wagon is in the custody of a signatory RU.
UIC, UIP and ERFA are closely working together. Their objective is to develop the General Contract of Use (GCU) for freight wagons. The three associations have expressed their opinion that, by signing this contract, railway players have shown that they are able to develop their activity on a libera-lized market, in a field in which cooperation represents an advantage. UIC, UIP and ERFA play a major role in this process; they monitor the implementation and observance of the conditions stipulated in the General Contract of Use (GCU). The European Commission and the European Railway Agency (ERA) believe that the GCU has a significant value; according to them, the GCU represents a vector for the concrete and efficient implementation of the European legislation in the railway sector. The GCU provides a multilateral legal framework for the use of wagons, based on the Contract of Use of Vehicles (CUV). This contract stipulates mutual rights and obligations for the use of wagons for both transport operators and wagon keepers. GCU exempts the parties involved in the contract from the negotiation of numerous bilateral agreements, therefore ensuring interoperability on a liberalized European railway market. At the same time, GCU can be amended through other contractual terms, if the signatories consider it ne-cessary. GCU applies the same regulations for the wagons owned by private companies and those that are in the custody of transport operators. The GCU eliminates the “matriculation” monopoly of private wagons by transport operators.
Railway freight transport made a huge step on October 2010, when the first virtual database for freight wagon registration became operational. This database stores all the information related to a wagon that crosses Europe and parts of the CIS region, from type, keeper or the country of origin.
“The GCU was developed as a generic contract under private law in order to cover all aspects of the practical relation of the contract parties that are involved in the operation of the freight cars, i.e. RUs, IMs and keepers. By nature it makes life easier because a standard contract can be applied instead of developing individual contracts for each and every wagon leasing business”, declared for Railway Pro at the beginning of last year, Holger Segerer, Secretary General of the International Union of Private Wagons.
Share on:
