United Kingdom
Sheffield Clean Air Zone
Traffic Technology Today, 09.05.2022
Siemens Mobility Yunex Traffic has received a contract for the design, supply and installation of cameras for monitoring and compliance in the clean air zone in the city center of Sheffield in the UK.
The decision to create a Clean Air Zone (Clear Air Zone - CAZ) followed a study conducted by Sheffield City Council, which showed that air pollution is the cause of about 500 deaths per year in the city, with the main cause of pollution being road transport and especially vehicles with diesel engines.
The creation of the CAZ will prevent the entry of vehicles with the highest emissions, including buses, taxis and trucks, and facilitate the transition to more environmentally friendly vehicles.
The Sicore II license plate recognition cameras from Yunex Traffic will be installed at 26 fixed points throughout the city. The cameras will identify and register every vehicle entering the zone. The information collected is then transferred to the UK government's national database for vehicle inspection and collection of fees in case of non-compliance with the requirements for CAZ entry. The funds raised will be used to cover the costs of operating the zone itself and for other air quality improvement projects.
Reducing emissions has become a priority for freight companies
Forwarder Magazine, 09.05.2022
According to a new study conducted by mobile solutions specialists Bridgestone and Webfleet Solutions among the leadership of 300 British companies in the field of road freight, reducing carbon dioxide emissions is currently the number one business priority for almost 45% of the surveyed enterprises.
The need for decarbonization prevailed over both digitalization (42%) and driver safety (37%), while the same 45% gave priority to cost reduction.
However, despite the commitment to ensure zero emissions, the study showed that, according to companies, it will take more than eight years before vehicle fleets become completely carbon-neutral: 7.5 years for heavy-duty vehicle operators and 8.7 years for medium-duty truck fleets.
43% of heavy-duty vehicle operators plan to invest in vehicles powered by alternative fuels over the next 12 months, and 36% of truck fleets plan to purchase electric vehicles. 39% plan to switch to energy-saving tires.
Andrea Manenti, vice president of the northern region of Bridgestone EMIA, noted, "these trends are stimulated not only by government regulation, but also by the growing recognition that the cost of buying, operating and maintaining electric vehicles is now usually lower than that of fossil fuel equivalents."
Sweden
Research on the impact of autonomous driving on transport in Gothenburg
Traffic Technology Today, 05.05.2022
The study, based on a simulation model provided by PTV Group, examines the potential impact of autonomous vehicles (AV) on public transport in the Swedish city of Gothenburg.
The aim of the study was to analyze how AV will affect the city by modeling various scenarios using the Gothenburg multimodal modeling platform in the PTV Visum software.
Researchers and traffic analysts from Trivector and the Swedish Public Transport Knowledge Center K2 took part in the project.
In the virtual environment of PTV Visum, researchers have studied many possible scenarios. They focused on two forms of AV usage: sharing with carrying only one passenger in a similar way to a personal car, and sharing with a set of multiple passengers moving in the same direction.
The study showed that when used together, the total number of vehicles in the traffic system can be significantly less, but each vehicle is used more. Several simulated scenarios led to an increase in traffic intensity despite a reduction in the total number of vehicles.
The researchers concluded that planning, legislation and regulations should be aligned with AV sharing services to ensure that AVS contribute to a sustainable mobility ecosystem in the future.
"Our work clearly shows that autonomous vehicles will have a serious impact on the transport system and, when applied correctly, they will create benefits of economic, environmental and social sustainability," said Fredrik Larsson, head of analysis at the Office of Urban Transport in the City of Gothenburg and Lennart Persson, head of Trivector Gothenburg. "But we must continue to develop our understanding of the concept through modeling, test projects and understanding the degree of AV acceptance by society."
USA
Autonomous cargo transportation from Volvo
Transport Topics, 09.05.2022
Volvo Autonomous Solutions (VAS) (a division of the Volvo Group) has announced that it will offer a new autonomous cargo transportation solution designed for shippers, carriers, logistics service providers and freight brokers.
VAS also announced that it will partner with global logistics provider DHL Supply Chain as its first customer to test a hub-to-hub solution. The future deployment of Volvo VNL Class 8 autonomous trucks will be DHL's first global operation under the Transport as a Service (TaaS) program.
"Our solution is an ecosystem for autonomous cargo transportation that will optimize operations, reduce emissions and improve safety," Nils Jaeger, president of VAS, said in a press release.
VAS, in collaboration with Aurora Innovation Inc., is working on a technical solution for the introduction of autonomous cargo transportation in the United States, and is also developing a comprehensive TaaS solution.
"Together we want to lead the continuous transformation that is taking place in the industry, and we will not only introduce new technologies on the cargo vehicles themselves, but also ensure the development of new solutions and ways of working for the entire transport ecosystem," said the head of the VAS Road solutions department.
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/volvo-autonomous-solutions-dhl-partner-hub-hub-transport
How artificial intelligence optimizes cargo transportation
Transport Topics, 09.05.2022
The concepts of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (MO) are not new; rapid progress in this area determines the future of software development in the field of freight transportation.
Technology providers are increasingly using AI and MO to improve the efficiency of the digital ecosystem that unites cargo transportation, including fleet management systems, pricing tools, etc.
During a panel discussion on April 8 at the Capital Ideas 2022 conference and exhibition of the Association of Transport Intermediaries in San Diego, several developers shared their opinions on how they use AI.
Criss Wilson, a data scientist at McLeod Software, said AI and MO can help sort out the vast amount of data collected by transportation and logistics companies and their technology providers.
McLeod, for example, processes the data of 137 trading partners, Wilson said.
"There is no person who could listen to 137 voices at once, understand them and prioritize them in order to make decisions. This is beyond human capabilities," Wilson said. "For us, AI and MO prioritize among all these different data and determine which of them are the most important for a particular task. "
Parade, a technology company that offers a capacity management tool for third-party logistics service providers uses AI in various ways, including data collection.
The company uses a natural language processing model trained in the vocabulary of the trucking industry to analyze relevant information from emails.
The introduction of AI and MO technologies has given modern transport companies access to a huge amount of data on transport operations and a better understanding of broad market conditions. The next step forward is to find the best ways to use all this information. AI and MO will play a leading role in this process.
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/how-ai-streamlining-freight-movement