Directive 2008/96/EC on road infrastructure safety management recognises that a sufficient number of safe rest areas is important for crime prevention and road safety. This legislation also ensures through road safety impact assessments and audits that when new road sections are built, adequate and safe parking areas are foreseen.

Regulation No 561/2006 on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport defines the mandatory rest periods for drivers along with the related liability of transport companies as well as controls and sanctions. STPA preferably with a common availability and reservation system provide an optimal solution to ensure that drivers can comply with the driving and resting times without parking illegally or dangerously.

Directive 2003/59/EC on the initial qualification and periodic training of drivers of certain road vehicles for the carriage of goods or passengers determines requirements for the qualification of truck drivers. Several STPA, such as Truck Stop A&O in Romania, provide training faculties for truck drivers.

Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 on tachographs in road transport sets out obligations and requirements in relation to the construction, installation, use, testing and control of tachographs used to record driving and rest times in road transport. STPA with a reservation and information system directly connected to the tachographs provide an optimal solution to plan the journey ahead and ensure compliance with the driving and resting times.

Directive 2010/40/EU requests the Commission to define specifications for the provision of information and reservation services for safe and secure parking places for trucks and commercial vehicles (Intelligent Truck Parking).

On the basis of Directive 2010/40/EU, the Commission has adopted its Delegated Regulation 885/2013 on the provision of information services for safe and secure parking places for trucks and commercial vehicles.

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The EU co-funded Project on Secured Truck Parking Operational Systems (SETPOS) established a standard on how to set up STPA. Thus it assessed and validated the requirements of various stakeholders, such as drivers, dispatchers, forwarders, rest area operators, insurers, public authorities and shippers. The SETPOS comprehensive handbook provides tools and standards that are helpful when setting up a STPA.

The EU co-funded Project LABEL “Creating a Label for (Secured) Truck Parking Areas along the Trans-European Road Network and Defining a Certification Process. Including Online Information Facility” established the basis for a certification system for STPA along the Trans-European Road Network.

The LABEL Handbook contains information on which criteria should be fulfilled in order to reach certain security and service levels for STPA. Furthermore, the handbook describes assessment processes and gives indications on cost for establishing various levels of STPAs.

LABEL is considered as the European standard and its results, dating from 2010, were further refined in the pan-European industrial standard developed by the European Secure Parking Organisation (ESPORG) in cooperation with all relevant stakeholders. The ESPORG standard is thus a generally accepted update of LABEL.

The European Secure Parking Organisation (ESPORG) was created out of the need to further develop the SETPOS and LABEL standards into a full-service system. Therefore ESPORG in cooperation with the International Road Transport Union (IRU), which act as the safe guardian of the LABEL standards, developed the European Industrial standard for STPA that combines security and services and have specified an assessment system that ensures an independent third-party certification process. It is planned to include as well the certification of the connectivity once Directive 2010/40/EU will be implemented by individual EU Members States.