Skip to main content

EGNOS for freight tracking and tracing

Tracking and tracing devices have been universally adopted in ITS for freight transport and logistics. In addition, through its policies and research initiatives, the European Union is stimulating technological innovation in the use of advanced satellite-based technologies to support smart mobility, higher efficiency and security of freight transport in the logistics chain
February 10, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
%$Linker: 2 Internal <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 4 9782 0 oLinkInternal <span class="oLinkInternal"><span class="oLinkInternal">RSS</span></span> Events (Diary) false /rss/events/ true false%>

Tracking and tracing devices have been universally adopted in ITS for freight transport and logistics. In addition, through its policies and research initiatives, the European Union is stimulating technological innovation in the use of advanced satellite-based technologies to support smart mobility, higher efficiency and security of freight transport in the logistics chain.  Some of these initiatives specifically pursue the use of the positioning services provided by the European satellite navigation systems EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) and Galileo.

Italian company 6711 Telespazio, a Finmeccanica-Thales company, has developed a solution to provide tracking and tracing services utilising EGNOS. The solution has been extensively proved within the framework of the European CONTAIN project in demonstrations in Europe in cooperation with Interporto Bologna and also in Jordan in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport of Jordan and Jordanian Customs within the framework of the European MEDUSA project.

Both demonstrations validated the added value of EGNOS for providing robust and reliable traceability of freight traffic. In particular, the use of EGNOS is said to enhance the security of the transport of goods and enable the establishment of liability schemes among the various stakeholders, supporting the implementation of smart mobility and European policies for logistics, such as e-freight and green lanes.

The recent European CORE project capitalises on these results to develop a real business case for the intermodal transport of dangerous material like chemicals across European corridors, turning the proofs of concept developed within CONTAIN and MEDUSA into best practices based on EGNOS and in the perspective of Galileo.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Cost Benefit: the economic case for cycling
    August 20, 2019
    Cycling is good for us for any number of reasons. David Crawford finds that it is now possible to access basic, low-cost data which will help make the economic case for improving infrastructure Cycling is enjoying a favourable press the world over as a ‘good thing’ in the economic, environmental and social spheres. A recent study on the Value of Cycling from the UK’s University of Birmingham, for example, shows that cycle-friendly urban settings can deliver annualised transport infrastructural support co
  • Worries as Huawei given role in UK’s 5G network
    April 24, 2019
    Alarm has been expressed by MPs over the UK government’s decision to allow Chinese firm Huawei to work on the UK’s 5G network. Prime minister Theresa May has banned Huawei from supplying ‘core’ parts of the country’s 5G infrastructure – but is believed to have given the green light for it to help deliver what are being called ‘non-core’ parts. As well as being for mobile phones, 5G is the technology which will be used to improve connectivity of autonomous vehicles and traffic controls. However, there ar
  • Applus IDIADA collision avoidance
    September 7, 2014
    Spanish company Applus IDIADA is showing the technology behind its Project VRAIN (Vehicular Risk Awareness Intelligent Network), which aims to improve safety for its clients in the automotive industry.
  • USDOT seeks input on next ITS research plan
    January 18, 2013
    The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) is seeking public input as it develops the next version of the ITS Strategic Plan. A new document called An Open Dialogue on the Draft Focus and Themes for the Next ITS Strategic Research Plan: Engaging Stakeholders in Their Discussion and Development was released today and it identifies the ITS-related issues that USDOT will focus on for the rest of the decade. The current ITS Strategic Research Plan - 2010-2014 established a focused research agenda to prepare th