photo: RAILTARGET/Malte Lawrenz
In an exclusive interview with RAILTARGET at the 14th VPI Symposium, Malte Lawrenz, the Chairperson of VPI, offered his insights on the current and future initiatives of the organization. Lawrenz delved into the strategic focus areas for the year and highlighted VPI's commitment to further enhancing rail freight's efficiency and competitiveness.
Today, the VPI symposium was held, which had an absolutely record attendance. What edition was it? And will you continue this tradition?
That was the fourteenth edition of our VPI symposium, and this is the core of our activities. Of course, we will continue because our members, friends, and VPI community appreciate this kind of format, and this is the DNA of our association.
Are there any topics that VPi will focus on this year?
This year, we, of course, will focus on the development of the DAC. It is really important to digitalize the rail freight sector. Furthermore, with our subsidiary, VERS, the VPI European Rail Service, we will focus on the further development of the European maintenance guide. Therefore, we will conduct a workshop with all of our big keeper companies responsible for ECM, and we want to develop the EMG further.
What is the view on DAC from the perspective of VPI?
VPI supports the development of the DAC to 100 percent degree because we believe that with rail freight's digitalization, competitiveness, and the future of rail freight traffic are dependent on the DAC. Therefore, we are fully behind this development and promote it as well as we can.
What other events or conferences is VPI planning for this year?
In the first quarter, we will have another 'Renew,' the update on the rail freight digitalization. Then, in the middle of the year, we will have our Assembly, where we will get together in Dusseldorf, and, following that, we will have the 'Technical Information Meeting' in June. As for the second half of the year, there are some things planned, but they haven't been fixed yet.