New year, new name: The Federal Office for Goods Transport (BAG) in Cologne becomes the Federal Office for Logistics and Mobility (BALM). For the taxpayer, the renaming on January 1st will be a costly affair, and the federal government has presented a bill. The sonorous title: “Draft of a law to adapt laws and regulations to the new authority designation of the Federal Office for Goods Transport”. Accordingly, the renaming will result in “compliance costs” – i.e. costs – of around 389,000 euros.
Volker Wissing’s (FDP) Ministry of Transport emphasizes that they have proceeded sparingly. The new name was “planned carefully and with foresight,” said a spokeswoman. In the case of company vehicles, the old name is initially only pasted over and only changed on new cars. Overall, the expenses therefore amounted to only 186 euros per vehicle, 28 euros per employee in the field and 13 euros in the office.
In addition, the authority no longer only takes care of freight transport. Among other things, the Federal Office is also helping the ministry with digitization, the implementation of climate protection and “currently with better forecasting, identification and flanking of crisis situations”. This is “long since no longer adequately represented by the name Federal Office for Goods Transport”.
