Members stressed the need for a uniform document that could be used to inspect new equipment when it was received from the supplier.

Trailer maintenance used to be carried out in a wide variety of more and less professional ways. It was difficult for TRTA members (both with and without their own workshop) to get a firm grasp on the quality and working hours required for each repair job.

At the end of the 1980s, there were hardly any service organisations with European coverage for towed equipment. Finding a workshop in a fairly far-flung foreign country to repair a vehicle that had broken down was not easy in those days without internet.

It was noted that trailer manufacturers generally applied very poor warranty conditions, often made up of a hotchpotch of subconditions from the suppliers of equipment components.

At the beginning of the 1990s, there was a chronic lack of inspectors for towed equipment. 

It proved difficult for specialised trailer workshops to attract well-trained staff.

At the time, TIR testing for semi-trailers was increasingly being scaled down by the Customs department because they were being used less and less.

In order to be able to carry out transport operations with a CEMT permit, extra requirements were imposed on these vehicles due to the high demand for these permits.

The fact that there are no insurance requirements for semi-trailers in the Netherlands has led to increasingly more problems in the EU where accidents involving mixed combinations from different countries occur. Nor is it possible for Dutch insurers to issue green cards for semi-trailers registered in countries other than the Netherlands, even though the semi-trailer is actually owned by a Dutch company.

Following serious accidents on unlit roads in rural areas, several parties called for the introduction of contour markings.