Services Standards: Defining the Core Consumer Elements ... - ANEC

Hans-W. Micklitz
against the six core consumer elements, the five standards cover only a small
extract of the relevant consumer issues.
European consumer organisations wanted to see the issues solved in the
intended revision of the Directive, i.e. by way of regulation. However, as the
proposal 415 does not respond to the consumer demands, the question remains
as to whether standards could cover that gap 416 .
VI.
Current practices in standardisation of transport services
The few standards in this area do not really concern consumers. EN 13816 on
public passenger transport – service quality definition, targeting and
measurement, and EN 1514 on public passenger transport – basic
requirements and recommendations for system that measures delivered service
quality – must be read together. They deal with methods of how to measure
service quality – with little guidance of what the level of quality to be provided
should be. EN 13876 on ‘Goods transport chains – code of practice for the
provision of cargo transport services’ deals with cargo transport only. More
interesting seems the business plan of CEN TC 320 on transport, which
contains an indication on a future that integrates the consumer point of view. As
far as is known, however, no concrete action has been taken so far or is
envisaged to pay tribute to the new policy target.
1. Scope, education and skills
Public passenger transport is undergoing a substantial change all over Europe.
The European Commission has put pressure on privatisation of public transport
services. The overall idea is to have competing services, for example different
bus lines, in order to improve customer satisfaction and keep prices low. So far
the existing standards deal with management and staff in broad terms only.
415 COM (2006) 594 final, 18.10.2006.
416 See BEUC Postal Services – Public consultation – BEUC’s comments,
BEUC/X/2005/2006, 8.2.2006.
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