During the meeting we got the information that the German BMVI will propose a separate informal working group to finish a separate regulation for agricultural couplings. In light of this and the process up to now within the Task Force Agricultural Couplings, Mr. Westphäling gave a review of the status of the agricultural couplings regulation.

For different reasons the work within the task force has lacked continuity. The starting point was three different national regulations. The merger of those has resulted in a proposal that needs a lot of processing to be coherent. The general impression of the current status is that there is an apparent risk that the safety level is lowered. A special concern is that there might be situations where tractors with allowable speed above 40 kmph appear in general road traffic using couplings that are only tested statically. Hence such couplings are not proven to be safe in fatigue dominated applications. In the details Mr. Westphäling expressed many concerns. The working group agreed to mandate Mr. Westphäling to present to the GRRF 82 an official statement from the group about the Agricultural couplings.