In 1987, the UIC and the Ministère de l’Intérieur (Home Office) signed a protocol of assistance of the public authorities by the French Chemical Industry when these authorities have to cope with an accident in the transport of Dangerous Goods.

Today, 130 companies support this protocol called TRANSAID as intervening parties or advisers for 400 products.

The UIC has been working on the renovation of the TRANSAID Convention for two years.
This renovation aims at achieving in the creation of new tools such as a pedagogical support in Powerpoint or as the computerization of the TRANSAID manual in the form of an Access database.
The involvement of all of the professional organisations (UIC regional offices, sector groups…) and of all of the people involved in the transport of Dangerous Goods (Public Authorities, CODIS – Fire and rescue operational committee, SDIS – Fire and rescue service, Chemical industries and Transporters) has permitted the implementation of regional committees and of support centres.
These regional committees, by the number of 7, see to the preservation of reactivity, competence and savoir-faire and to the development of expertise to prepare the decisions to make when transport accidents occur.

These actions were presented during the half-day of work on April 8th 2004 that gathered representatives from the Ministère de l’Intérieur (Home Office) and the Ministère en charge des transports (Ministry of Transport), the members of the Board of Directors of the UIC and numerous representatives of regional UIC and of sector groups.