Sweden an important market for alcolocks                                         

There are 380 million people living in the EU, in Sweden there are only nine. However, the Swedish Alcolock Commission estimates that Sweden, despite its size, may be a huge market for alcolock manufacturers.
In order to determine the market potential for alcolocks in Sweden, the Commissi-on has drawn up six scenarios. Lars Olov Sjö-ström, one of the three secretaries working for the Commission, reveals the results:

1. Alcolocks in all new cars by law. (262,212 new cars and 36,214 new trucks were sold in 2004).

2. Alcolocks in all taxis, buses and trucks by law – in total almost 468,000 vehicles.                              Back

3. Requirements for transport procurement. Alcolocks to be available for all procured goods transports as well as cars owned by legal persons. In figures we are talking about 123,000 heavy (85 per cent of all heavy vehicles consis-ting of 145,480 vehicles carry out transports that have been procured according to the SIKA (the Swedish Institute for Transport and Communi-cations Analysis). The transport ratio procured for light trucks is considerably smaller, about ten per cent. This means that 29,400 light trucks come into question in Scenario 3. There are 11,300 alcolocks installed in buses (85 per cent of 13,363). All Swedish taxi cabs, 13,865 (2004), will be a•ected in this scenario. Added to this are 790,889 cars owned by legal persons (there were 4,075,414 vehicles in Sweden at year end 2003). The alcolock Commission’s third scenario thus means that 968,454 vehicles will need to install alcolocks.

4. Alcolocks in all publicly-owned vehicles. It would affect 37,356 private cars and 10,227 trucks, in total 47,583 vehicles.

5. Alcolocks in private cars is voluntary. Litt-le interest as long as they are as expensive as they are today. The investigators point out that interest may be greater with cheaper trial locks, lower tax and revised taxation rules for compa-ny cars, excluding alcolocks from the taxed va-lue. The investigation would consider a proposal to the effect that company cars can only be used privately on the condition they are fitted with alcolocks.

6. Alcolocks for all whose driver’s licence has been withdrawn on the grounds of drunk driving. In 2004, 6,904 licences were withdrawn for this reason. Persons addicted to other substances than alcohol are not suitable since alcolocks do not prevent them from dri-ving while under the influence at the moment. Left are 6,500 drivers, but this figure is likely to be drastically reduced following an introduc-tion of alcolocks since many of the drivers who are caught are second offenders.

Sweden gets tough on drink drivers...

Alison Lapp

On Tuesday, Ulrica Messing, Sweden's communications minister, told a meeting of European parliament members and transport industry experts that other EU nations should follow Sweden's example to make roads across Europe safer.

Messing spoke of alcohol interlock technology - palm-sized devices that test a driver's breath and lock the ignition when the blood alcohol level exceeds a preset limit.

Some commercial vehicles and taxicabs have already been fitted with "alcolocks" in Sweden.

The country is considering requiring all new cars in the country to be installed with the device by 2012.

Messing said: "Today, we travel in a borderless Europe. This means we all share the benefits of the improvements in road safety that our member states achieve. But it also means we need each other."

Alcohol consumption figures in 30% of all fatal car accidents in Sweden

Requiring that all new cars come equipped with alcolocks in Sweden may generate legal problems. Under EU trade rules, countries cannot legally imposing safety measures on new cars that are not required elsewhere in the EU.

'We cannot afford to forgo this chance'

Messing said that Sweden should be granted an exemption from that rule because the safety of its citizens was at stake.

She added that all Europeans can benefit from the alcolocks technology.

Messing said: "Swedish experts believe alcohol-related road accidents can be halved if all cars are fitted with an alcolock. We cannot afford to forgo this chance."

The EU's road safety programme estimates that 10 000 Europeans die each year because of drunk driving.

Messing said cross-border travel in the EU is expected to increase twice as fast as domestic travel in the coming years.

Jan Sundling, CEO of the Swedish transport company Green Cargo, said his company has installed alcolocks in all its vehicles.

Sundling said the technology has been a success story for his company, adding that the devices have improved customer confidence in his business and given a better reputation to the transportation industry.

According to Swedish road safety director, Claes Tingvall, there is not much demand for the devices in private cars.

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