500th VPI-EMG recipient

The VPI-EMG success story:

Europe’s standard document for maintenance welcomes 500th recipient

The VPI service company VERS welcomes the Voith Group as the 500th recipient of the VPI European Maintenance Guide (VPI-EMG). Fifteen years after the first edition, the recommendations for the maintenance of wagons have long been established as the Europe-wide standard. The modularly structured Maintenance Guide serves as a basis for the maintenance regulations of wagon keepers and/or their entities in charge of maintenance (ECMs). A total of 500 companies in 26 countries now receive the VPI-EMG, which is currently available in 13 languages.

Launched as an industry initiative, the VPI-EMG is a success story: today, nearly all wagon keepers large and small throughout Europe are among the recipients of these maintenance recommendations, as are DB and SNCF maintenance workshops. In recent years, a Europe-wide network of over 200 workshops and mobile service teams using the VPI-EMG have joined this group.

The 500th recipient, Voith, is one of them. The company aims to expand its service portfolio at the Kiel location and implement the VPI-EMG. ‘When we decided to offer wheelset maintenance for wagons, there was no doubt about it: we wanted to offer our services according to the VPI-EMG. Maintenance based on the VPI-EMG stands for a reliable standard in the industry – just like our high standards for our services,’ says Ulf Klaua, Director Sales Rail at Voith, explaining the choice.

The VPI-EMG currently comprises eleven modules – from ‘Wheelsets’ to ‘Non-destructive testing’ through to ‘Electronic data interchange’. The recommendations are being continuously updated and expanded to include new modules. In the future, not only the topics of digitalisation, sensor technology and digital automatic coupling but also the professional requirements and qualifications related to the repair of wagons will be included for the first time or receive special focus in the VPI-EMG.
In creating the various modules, VERS involves experts from the European railway traffic sector – from wagon keepers and ECMs to workshops and railway undertakings.

The VPI-EMG success story began in 2007, when the association presented the first edition of the maintenance recommendations, then under the title VPI Maintenance Guide. As part of the changed European rules and standards, a replacement for the maintenance rules in use by the national railways until that time had to be put in place quickly. At the same time, the association’s offerings were expanded to include technical assessments. A successful technical assessment is the workshops’ certification that they meet the requirements for working on the basis of the VPI European Maintenance Guide. It is a sought after quality verification for workshops.