About the Association for European Transport

The Association for European Transport was founded in 1998 as a non-profit making organisation open to anyone wishing to advance transport planning through discussion and debate amongst professionals. Its members include both individuals and organisations.

AET is controlled by a 24 member elected Council. One third of the Council is re-elected each year.

The Council in turn appoints a Board, which can be up to seven people. Positions on the Board are unpaid and are responsible for managing the day-to-day affairs of the Association. The Board is assisted by a small paid Secretariat, which operates on the basis of various three-year management contracts.

The Association is the leading European organisation for transport professionals and academics. AET promotes networking and exchange of ideas, information and opportunities amongst members. It organises Europe's oldest multi-disciplinary, multi-stream annual transport conference, the European Transport Conference (ETC).

Members of the association are encouraged to play an active role in the Association by joining the Programme Committees which put together the programme for ETC, acting as Session Chairs during the Conference, mentoring young and first-time presenters and joining the panel of experts to peer review a selection of papers presented at the Conference. Members of the Association are currently drawn from more than 35 countries and about 200 Organisation and Individual Members.

AET is committed to the development of young professionals in the transport industry and in academic fields. For more information about the benefits of AET membership see the membership section.

The following figure explains how the Association works:

One of the principal activities of the Association for European Transport is the planning of the annual European Transport Conferences. The European Transport Conference is the successor to the Summer Annual Meetings which were begun by PTRC Education and Research Services Ltd in 1973. The organisation of these Conferences is heavily dependent on Programme Committees, voluntary groups of AET members who are specialists in a particular field of transport.

The Programme Committees are responsible for the technical content and social life of the Conferences. Commercial and organisational matters are dealt with by a Conference Management Team, comprising representatives of the AET Board, the ETC sponsors and the ETC contractors.