International carriage of perishable foodstuffs
The abbreviation ATP (Accord Relatif Aux Transports Internationaux de Denrées Périssables Et Aux Engins Spéciaux à Utiliser Pour Ces Transports) stands for the Agreement on the international carriage of perishable foodstuffs and on the special equipment used for such carriage. The Agreement and its annexes have been regularly amended and updated since their entry into force by the Working Party on the Transport of Perishable Foodstuffs (WP.11) of the Economic Commission for Europe’s Inland Transport Committee. The representative of Serbia in the Working Party WP.11 is prof. Vladimir Popović, PhD from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Belgrade.
ATP Agreement sets the requirements for the international transport of perishable foodstuffs and the equipment used for such transport in order to ensure quality and safety of the foodstuffs. According to this Agreement, it is illegal to transport perishable foodstuffs by a vehicle that does not possess a valid ATP certificate in countries that signed the Agreement. Any practices contrary to the Agreement may lead for the vehicle to be stopped, prohibited access to a country, and fined severely.
CIAH Laboratory is Serbia’s only ATP test station approved by UNECE WP.11 and by the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure.
First ATP certificate is issued according to the testing or compliance with already tested type representative and is valid for the maximum of 6 years. After that time, the certificate can be issued after achieving the criteria determined in periodic tests, and for the maximum time of 3 years.
As determined in ATP Agreement and local law, testing and inspection of vehicles and issuing of certificates can be done only by a testing station assigned by the authorities of a country the vehicle is registered in, except if the inspection has been done on a new vehicle or its prototype in a testing station assigned by the authority of a country the vehicle has been manufactured in.
Contact:
Miloš Maljković, email: mmaljkovic@mas.bg.ac.rs