Integrated transport flows between different transport modes – vision or reality?

Lars Tingström from Hogia spoke at the logistics and transport fair Transport och Logistikmässan 2015 about the trends and challenges he faces in his work. He expects to see an increased concentration of goods in transport corridors in the Ten-T network in the future. Each corridor involves at least three of the following four transport modes: rail, road, sea and air. In order to coordinate and maintain the high degree of traceability and information exchange that exists today in each separate transport mode, it is necessary for the different players to collaborate in developing standards for information exchange.

There are often highly developed integrations and standards in place within the separate transport modes, and point-to-point systems are also common. However, so far little focus has been placed on standardising information exchange between different transport modes where several players depend on the information. Information exchange is made complicated by conflicting designations, standards and, to some extent, obstructive competition. When players regard integration as expensive and costly, the information flow automatically decreases. The consequences of this are lower quality financial follow-up and loss of information along the transport chain, which in turn can result in reduced traceability.

One solution is to create better opportunities for simple, cost-effective and standardised information exchange by encouraging collaboration between players in the different sectors. Several standardisation initiatives are in progress in the EU, but it is hard for the initiatives to get a foothold in the industry. This is partly due to a lack of clarity regarding ownership and responsibility for regulations and maintenance, which makes most players in the industry reluctant to pay the initial cost of adapting to the standard.

Many initiatives are currently being taken to encourage collaboration between players, and there are plenty of motivating factors. Standardised integrations will play an important role in achieving higher efficiency, fill levels and safety in the future transport industry, and this requires cross-sector collaboration. Hogia actively works to promote standardisation, both at EU level and by involving different industry players, and regards this as a high-priority area.

Hogia has over 25 years' experience of developing and supplying software and IT systems to the transport sector, and is the only system supplier in Europe to offer integrated solutions for ferries, port terminals, road transport and public transport.

Hogia's PubTrans central integrator:

-helps 500 transport managers do their job every day

-performs 1 million traffic forecasts per day

-provides 25,000 drivers with instructions every day

-keeps track of 6,000 vehicles' position at any given moment