Fleet managers wanting to assess and hence reduce the cost of accidents, emissions and congestion have been offered a handbook of statistical models by the European Commission.

The handbook, said the commission, assembles best practice methods to estimate the external costs generated by transport activities.

The commission said the information will help “interested parties value external costs” showing, for instance, that such external costs depend strongly on vehicle characteristics, urbanisation and travel time (peak, off-peak and night-time).

The models will be used by the commission to help it draft a policy paper by June on charging operators and users for the external costs created by transport services.

The costs handbook can be downloaded at http://ec.europa.eu/transport/index_en.html and follow the “on the agenda” link.