published: 02-10-2019
Digitalization is a key enabler in the transition towards a healthy logistics and freight transport system.
Such digital innovations are developing at a very fast pace, although in 2 separate worlds: logistics and traffic management. In logistics, digitalization is driven by private stakeholders in the manufacturing and services sector, supporting tactical and operational management problems such as inventory and transport planning, routing and scheduling. In traffic management, ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) applications focus on the collective of vehicles – both for freight and for people – in traffic flows, aiming to optimize capacity use and resilience. Developments in ITS are driven by road authorities and ITS solution providers, and have not yet permeated into logistics operations. While the main actors in logistics and traffic management are very different, both could benefit from a more integrated approach. In the end, both suffer from the same problems of congestion and travel time uncertainties on a daily basis. If both sides continue to innovate in isolation, they risk to grow further apart rather than to become more integrated.
In FTMAAS, we take up integration of transport logistics and traffic management as the innovation challenge. Given the growing pressure to increase the sustainability of both freight transport and traffic systems, unlocking the potential of an integrated system is of great importance. The potential of this integration goes well beyond passing congestion information to route planners, the current state of practice. Promising advances include customization of travel time predictions and traffic management measures for specific user groups. This leads to more efficient routing decisions, less traffic and less emissions. Also, carriers or hubs can provide traffic managers with traffic status or routing information to improve their predictions or inform infrastructure changes. Benefits are found in the wider traffic system as well in the private logistics operations.
The mission of the FTMAAS Living Labs is to connect these two subsystems by developing, implementing and testing integrating applications, measuring their impact on logistic performance and traffic networks.
The NWO project is led by TUDelft, besides Panteia other partners are: Technische Unie, Filogic, Supply Stack, Technolution, PTV, Simacan, Transfollow, Smartwayz, Exxon Mobil, Verkeersonderneming, CBS, Provincie Limburg, Provincie Noord-Brabant, Rainbow Management, Peter Appel transport, TLN, Topsector Logistiek, RWS, TU Eindhoven, VU, Hogeschool Zeeland, Hogeschool van Amsterdam.