Integrating freight transportation with intelligent transportation systems - Some European issues and priorities

Europe faces major challenges when it comes to formulating its transportation policy. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are considered a key tool to create the intelligent transportation systems (ITS) that Europe needs. In freight transportation, ICT is seen as playing a crucial role in providing efficiency in freight transportation operation and in integrating it within the overall ITS that are now being put in place in Europe. The issues and priorities for freight transportation integration with the European ITS are presented, with concentration (as one such priority) on the issue of linking freight transportation management systems with the advanced traffic-management systems of the European ITS. Also covered are the results so far of the thematic network THEMIS, which concentrates on the relation between freight transportation and ITS. A thematic network is a special type of research project, financed by the European Union's Directorate General of Transport and Energy in order to review and synthesize the results of research in a specific field, in this case freight transportation. The efforts made at the European level toward the formulation of a common, ITS-based freight transportation systems architecture are also reviewed. In this respect, there is a report on work done within project THEMIS.