Title: Assessment of Telematic Systems for Road Freight
Transport

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is the assessment of telematic systems for road freight transport
from a planning perspective. The aim is to support strategic decisions related to archi-
tectural choices for such systems, with the possibility to achieve synergies by supporting
multiple telematic services. The past decade has witnessed enormous growth in cargo
volumes resulting in increasing demand for transport capacity. To match this increasing
demand only with expansion of infrastructure, e.g. road and vehicles, does not seem
to be a sustainable strategy. One of the few approaches with the potential to improve
the use of current transport capacity is the integrated use of modern information and
communication technology, otherwise known as telematic systems for road transport, an
important component within Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). This type of systems
can deliver multiple services that can be used to improve the effciency and safety of
road freight transport. However, attempts to unleash the potential of telematic systems
and make maximum possible use of the available transport capacity have been hindered
by several challenges ranging from planning and design to development and deployment.
Considering the large scope of possible telematic services that can potentially be
deployed in road freight transport, this thesis suggests a framework in order to enable
structured assessment of telematic systems. Based on the suggested framework, a set
of potential transport telematic services are identied and a method for quantifying
the value of the services to society is developed. The suggested method takes into
account the expected impact on dierent transportation challenges, such as accidents,
fuel consumption, and infrastructure maintenance. Quantitative methods are provided
for studying the value of services sharing a common infrastructure. Using quantied
benets of services and costs of various functionalities required by telematic services, the
concept of a multi-service architecture is investigated using optimization methods, which
handles the multi-dimensional relations between dierent services that are otherwise
diffcult to analyze with traditional cost-benet analysis. The analyses show which
telematic services can be achieved with dierent approaches, such as vehicle-to-vehicle
communication, vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, etc.
Although multi-service architectures are promising, several challenges need to be
overcome, including security, service quality, privacy, and business models. The knowl-
edge gained from the work presented in this thesis can be valuable for dierent stake-
holders, such as governments, service providers, and transport service users, in fostering
the planning, design, development, and deployment of telematic systems in transport.

The complete thesis can be downloaded from: Licentiate Thesis