ANTT and Infra S.A. approve five-year data-sharing agreement on road freight emissions

Brazil’s National Land Transport Agency (ANTT) approved a technical cooperation agreement with Infra S.A. to implement and operate the MelhorAR program, the agency said on October 23. The decision was taken at ANTT’s public board meeting on October 22. The arrangement provides for structured sharing of data from the National Registry of Road Freight Carriers (RNTRC), integration with the National Transport and Logistics Observatory, and studies and indicators on the environmental performance of road transport.

The agency said the information is intended to improve the evidence available on vehicle emissions and inform regulatory studies concerning air-pollutant reduction in freight transport. MelhorAR, established under Transport Ministry Ordinance 192 in February 2025, periodically assesses emissions through companies accredited by Infra S.A. Reports classify vehicles into emission bands and can support award of the program’s seal. ANTT said the new linkage is meant to organize access to such performance data, not to establish a new emissions limit or automatically impose sanctions.

The agreement also connects the MelhorAR seal to ANTT’s ESG Cargas certification. Under the proposal described by the agency, the seal would be accepted as sufficient evidence for the environmental criterion in the certification notice, although ANTT may define other ways to demonstrate compliance. The agreement thus establishes a possible evidentiary route between vehicle assessments and the regulator’s sustainability instrument; it does not mean that every carrier is certified or that every registered vehicle has undergone measurement.

Data exchange will not begin automatically when the cooperation agreement is formalized. The agency said the two institutions must first approve a specific protocol setting the rules for access, use and sharing, with safeguards under Brazil’s personal-data law. Information received is to be used for the purposes stated in the agreement, and technical evidence may support studies and initiatives without predetermining ANTT’s regulatory decisions. The regulator said it retains its decision-making autonomy and that any future measures must follow applicable procedures.

The cooperation is set for 60 months, with possible extension through an addendum. ANTT said no financial transfers or donations of goods are planned between the institutions; each will cover the expenses assigned to its own responsibilities and budget. The agreement is therefore principally an administrative and data-integration step. The release describes intended studies and indicators but gives no fleet coverage, emissions baseline, measurement schedule, expected reduction, or number of carriers to be included. Those outcomes cannot yet be quantified from the announcement. Before the protocol is approved, the cooperation agreement alone does not authorize automatic transfer or specify which carrier-level records will be exchanged. That step remains subject to joint governance and data-protection safeguards.