Preparatory documents for the International Seminar

• Seminar first announcement
• Seminar second announcement

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Summary of the Seminar

The Technical Committee B.4 "Freight Transport" has been active since several cycles and published a number of reports, which cover current challenges and present innovative solutions and best practices (www.piarc.org). According to PIARC strategic plan 2016-2019, the Committee is dealing with three issues:

• National policies for multi-modal freight transport and logistics;
• Truck traffic on highways;
• Good Practices on energy-efficient freight transport.

These issues are also the key topics of the seminar. Its objectives are to exchange knowledge and experiences, to present and share good practices and to discuss challenges and newest developments regarding logistics and road freight transport in combination with other modes.

The seminar convened around 100 attendees and was a great opportunity to facilitate the exchange and cooperation between PIARC Mexican National Committee and other organisations and institutions.

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Technical Conclusions of the Seminar

It is necessary and very convenient for the road and logistics sectors to work together; Road Administrations should acknowledge themselves as logistics players in the supply and distribution chains.

Session on "Logistics Policies and Multimodal Transport"

The national logistics and multimodal policies of the different countries are mostly replicable to other countries

Most of the policies presented by the different countries are oriented towards sustainability, with the following particularities:

• Japan (Taniguchi, E): elderly user orientation; risk management and disaster prevention
• Switzerland (Ruesch, M): democratic process in the definition of its policies; fees for heavy vehicles; truck traffic management; extension of the railway network; supporting measure for intermodal freight transport.
• Austria (Grassl, P), has a Federal Commissioner for Logistics; developed a Logistics Master Plan with a bundle of measures, incl. tracking of hazardous goods and training in "Professional Driving"
• USA (Julien, T) orients its multimodal policy to gain competitiveness, security and inter-state fluency;
• UAE (James, J) seeks to create conditions for logistical actors to compete in conditions that are equal, efficient and secure.
• The Andean Community (Vera, A) presents policies with a regional vision

Sessions on "Freight Management and Road Traffic"

• Improving the fluidity of logistics chains will only come hand in hand with a rigorous metric of logistics performance.
• Mexico (Cedillo, G): Metrics to better manage the transport. "Synchromodality Era": Management of corridors and not just transport
• USA (Eisele, B; Monsreal, M): Fluency Index to manage border crossings, by commodity, corridor and for a period of time.
• Belgium (Van Geelen, H): Scheme of charges for kilometers driven to compensate for the greater wear on pavements
• Mexico (Frías, MA): Binational Planning and Implementation Methodology for US-Mexico Border Crossing Infrastructure

Session on "Truck management on highways"

• High Capacity Trucks (HCT) qre possible and occurs in other countries, under certain conditions presented during the seminar
• Sweden (Nylander, A): HCT routes; mainly for wood; routes signalling and training
• Finland (Antikainen, T): Up to 76 tonnes per truck; HCT not necessarily related to accidents; saving of emissions (-20%)
• Mexico (Del Mazo, A): Greater traffic volumes than, for example, Finland or Sweden. The current NOM was consensual with academic institutions, research and practitioners; there will be a revision of the standard in 2017
• France (Jacob, B): "Platooning" for fuel economy (30%) and emissions reduction. Consists of driving trucks, one after another, connected by Wi-Fi, at constant speeds and without overrun, to overcome resistance of the wind. There are other benefits (less stress for drivers and more). It is in the trial phase to start operating in 2020. The separation between one truck and another must be regulated so as not to affect bridges.
• USA (Julien, T): National Coalition for Truck Parking Areas, federal government-trade union associations; ITS to report space availability; location and financing considerations

"Efficient energy use in freight transport"

• Roads can be electrified and be made sustainable; different solutions were presented.
• Sweden (Nylander, A): Strategic vision of government for its development. They intend to generate zero emissions. Advantage: Use the existing road network.
• In Germany (Akerman, P), Siemens proposes an elevated system (catenary). Videos of prototypes of this technology were presented.
• In France (Duprat, P), Alstom also has a system for electrified roads. In this case the feed is at floor level; there are videos available.
• In another approach, Switzerland (Ruesch, M): Zero emission Vison for 2050. Strategies: reduction / substitution of traffic; Transport optimization; Continuous flows; Modal shift; green propulsion systems and automation of transport.
• Mexico (Sánchez, L), "Technical Driving" can reduce consumption

Session "ITS and and enforcement of regulations on highways"

• ITS -and other technologies and standards- not only allow efficient traffic on the roads, but their surveillance and safety.
• Mexico (Galán, L): Case study. Use of GPS to measure performance in the crossing of toll booths by motor transport; queues were observed in a shed of about 500 minutes (average for 2016!); allows fuel consumption and carbon emissions reductions
• European Union (Jacob, B): Weigh In Motion (WIM) to monitor weights and dimensions, not only for safety and road damage prevention, but for fair transport competition. WIM detects companies that abuse, to audit them selectively.
• Mexico (Luviano, R): Case of AEO (World Customs Organization) certification and how it allows better security control and, indirectly, compliance with road transport regulations.

Workshop

• Road network in Mexico, should be complemented by specialized hostels for truck freight transport; this will result in more safety for the roads.
• The seminar included a workshop that was attended by a major road user (Grupo Jumex), and a major highway concessionaire (VISE).
• The general theme was to show in a friendly way, that although while JUMEX mainly uses the roads to move their merchandise, VISA has them as their main user (customer), but in fact, they do not know each other, not only personally, but not even as customer-vendor.
• The challenges which each offers the other: robberies, accidents, delays, among others. In analyzing it became evident the need to have specialized hostels for motor transport and all the audience discussed about it.

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Technical Program

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