FREIGHTWISE is a program meant to stimulate freight transport intermodality in Europe, in order to reduce time delays between road, rail, maritime and inland freight transport. This program promotes European policies that encourage interoperable systems and the development of a single platform, so that the railway industry can meet the requirements and demands of all those involved in the transport process, from infrastructure managers to operators and the authorities in charge of ensuring transport safety.
FREIGHTWISE’s main objective is to use multimodal solutions instead of unimodal. This objective could be reached by improving communication between all those involved in the freight transport process. FREIGHTWISE was initiated on October 1, 2006 and it was meant to act as a business model and provide the necessary freight flow framework through which the authorities could successfully implement the European legislation. The full name of this program is Management Framework for Intelligent Intermodal Transport. 55 organisations from 14 European countries participate in this program. Perfecting freight transport management, facilitating the exchange of information between various companies that use different modes of transport, consolidating the collaboration between the state and private sector, as well as between large entities and small and medium-size organisations, these are the main steps that should be taken in order to ensure an efficient intermodal transport system at European level. Basically, the planning, management and financial aspects used for contracting a freight transport service will become more transparent thanks to FREIGHTWISE. The concepts proposed through this program come from the successful past experiences of both state-owned and private transport companies and they will provide a strong starting point for the implementation of a joint strategy.
More participants, one common language
Silvio Di Re from the University of Rome, the manager and coordinator of this program, said that, in case of freight transport, the main problem is the use of various freight flow management systems. That is why the development of a joint platform for several modes of transport will generate many advantages, including: equipment interoperability on various infrastructures, compatibility of the information transmitted through various communications means to end users, better coordination of services from various operators, more options for the customers, reduced risks for the industry which will no longer have to develop products that don’t meet the national certification standards, expansion of the raw materials market, more suppliers that meet the requirements of carriers. One of the main problems of any intermodal transport chain is the large number of organizations, starting from the operators and ending with the processes that ensure the development of a multimodal service. In order to facilitate the entire process, some of the solutions would be to ensure an efficient exchange of information, develop joint communication platforms, ensure a non-discriminatory treatment for every organisation, irrespective of their size and importance, and also cultivate a permanent dialogue between the participants. The most efficient solution would be to find a common ground in terms of signalling systems for various modes of transport: ERTMS for rail transport, SESAR for air transport, RIS for inland transport and VTMIS, AIS and LRIT for maritime transport. Some of the projects included in the FREIGHTWISE program include steel transport from the EU and Russia and the involvement of the local industry in the supply of equipment compatible with the systems implemented in the countries included in the transport routes. Another project (South-East Case) is the optimization of the steel transport flow whose beneficiary is Arcelor-Mittal and which includes countries in the Balkan Region and Greece. A relevant case for the role of FREIGHTWISE is the establishment of a virtual communication interface between the infrastructure manager ERGOSE, the transport operator OSE, the forwarder PROODOS, the Port of Thessalonica and the customer. This interface provides all the technical specifications for steel transport, from the vehicles available for the freight transit to the shortest routes leading to the port.
by Alin Lupulescu
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