European Pathways to Introduce EGNOS and Galileo for Dangerous Goods Transport

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Every year the transport of dangerous goods amounts to more than 154 billion tonne-km on European roads, railways and inland waterways (source: Eurostat http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu, year 2013). When speaking about dangerous goods movement, traceability and monitoring are not only a matter of an intelligent and efficient logistics. They also imply aspects related to security and safety, being a concern common to involved industries and authorities.For this reason, tracking & tracing the shipment of dangerous goods requires an efficient collection of timely and precise information about the various operations. Besides, reliability is a fundamental requirement, especially in the case of intermodal transport where different operators and modalities are involved. About 85% of the shrinkage in the overall supply chain occurs while materials, components or finished goods are in transit.In this respect, the satellite navigation technology is a key element, as it enables:•The continuous localization, control and monitoring of goods traffic during transport.•The collection of data to be further analysed for statistical reporting and incident prevention.Systems based on the use of satellite positioning are today widely adopted in the transport of dangerous goods operations. Tracking & tracing devices (installed on board of the asset transporting the goods) can also integrate sensors to enable the monitoring of the status of the goods and different telecommunication means (satellite and/or terrestrial) for positions/data transmission.Various past and on-going European initiatives are also introducing the use of the European satellite navigation (EGNSS, European Global Navigation Satellite System), starting from EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) and in view of Galileo.Among these initiatives, the project SCUTUM (SeCUring the EU GNSS adopTion in the dangeroUs Material transport, www.scutumgnss.eu) concluded in 2011, exhaustively and successfully demonstrated that EGNOS provides precise and reliable localization and tracking, and thus it is particularly suitable for monitoring the transport of dangerous goods. Today, thanks to SCUTUM, EGNOS is used to monitor around 1,200 road tankers transporting dangerous goods by road in Europe (Italy, France, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic).Capitalizing on SCUTUM's achievements, the on-going project CORE, started in 2014 and with a duration of 4 years, is extending the use of EGNOS to the intermodal transport of dangerous goods, and analysing the advantages of the introduction of Galileo.As done in SCUTUM, also CORE is expected to launch an operational best practice in Europe. Moreover, similarly to SCUTUM, the project's results will feed the on-going UNECE OTIF WG (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Organisation Intergouvernementale pour les Transports Internationaux Ferroviaires Working Group) on Telematics in relation to the use of telematics for the transport of dangerous goods, specifically for what the EGNSS is concerned.