During the meeting, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Transport and Russian automakers agreed to amend the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan on the Safety of Wheel-Based Transport Vehicles. Consultations with the Custom Union partners will begin in April. The meeting participants agreed that the requirement to equip motor cars and light commercial lorries with rapid response systems should become effective in 2014-2015. This decision will help synchronise the launching of the Russian ERA GLONASS tracking system and its European counterpart, eCall. The exact timeframe for mandatory installation of the equipment will be determined within the next month. A working group led by GAZ Group president Bo Inge Andersson has been established to this end. Mr Andersson has the requisite expertise from his participation in creating and implementing the U.S. OnStar road assistance service.

There were nearly 200,000 traffic accidents in Russia in 2011 killing almost 28,000 people and injuring another 250,000. With ERA GLONASS, information about the vehicle, including its precise location, will be automatically sent to a dispatcher. The dispatcher will then quickly send help, such as an emergency rescue team, traffic police or ambulance, to the location of the accident. It was noted during the meeting that implementation of the ERA GLONASS system and equipping vehicles with such devices will help reduce traffic fatalities by 10%-12% and reduce the severity of injuries suffered as a result of accidents by 15%.

The state will bear a portion of the cost, as well as finance construction of the ERA GLONASS communication infrastructure and put in place the rapid response system to ensure timely arrival of rescue services at the accident site. ERA GLONASS devices will be installed at the factory, the way the European eCall is installed, and enterprises should do so at their own expense.

Russian- and foreign-made onboard GLONASS/GPS devices are already available on the market. In the next phase such devices will be installed as standard equipment.

The mandatory installation of ERA GLONASS devices in vehicles will help save thousands of lives, the meeting participants believe, and will not result in significant increases in the price of vehicles.