Review of Current Status of Standardisation

Task 3.3 Report: Standardisation

THEMIS

Thematic Network in Optimising

the Management of Intermodal Transport Services

Task 3.3

Review of current status of standardisation

Prepared by
TFK / DE
With contributions from

c:\textetfk\3.3-standard\33_toc_3spaet.doc

THEMIS Thematic Network is an initiative of the European Commission’s DG Energy and Transport (DG TREN) to promote the integration of Traffic Management Systems with Freight Transport Information Systems.

Table of Content

1 Introduction 4

2 Abbreviations 5

3 Management Summary 6

4 Methodology and Coverage 8

5 The Role and Relevance of Standards 9

5.1 Areas of Standardisation 9

5.1.1 Identification 9

5.1.2 The Special Case Postal Services 13

5.1.3 Technologies for Identification 14

5.1.4 Consideration of Relevance 14

5.2 Business processes 15

5.3 Traffic information 16

5.4 Logistical chain aspects (e.g. tracking, intermodal nodes) 16

5.5 Messages and Messaging 17

5.6 Quality 18

5.7 Conclusions 18

6 The Makers and the Making of Standards 20

6.1 Standardisation Bodies 20

6.2 Categories of standards 22

6.3 Conclusions 23

7 Relevant European Standardisation Bodies 24

7.1 Introduction 24

7.2 TC 119 - Swap Bodies for Combined Goods Transport 24

7.3 TC 224 - Machine-readable cards, Related Device Interfaces and Operations 26

7.4 TC 278 – Road Transport and Traffic Telematics 32

7.5 TC 331 – Postal Services 33

8 Standards Under Development 38

8.1 Introduction 38

8.2 TC119 - Swap Bodies for Combined Goods Transport 38

8.3 TC224 - Machine-readable Cards, Related Device Interfaces and Operations 39

8.4 TC278 - Road Transport and Traffic Telematics 42

8.4.1 Work of TC278, WG12 48

8.5 TC331 - Postal Services 49

Illustrations

Illustration 1: Physical aspects of relevant areas 9

Illustration 2: Unit identification 12

Illustration 3: The global organisation of standardisation 20

Illustration 4: Design and life cycle of standards 22

Tables

Table 1: Standards produced by CEN TC119 38

Table 2: Standards produced by CEN TC224 41

Table 3: Standards produced by CEN TC278 47

Table 4: Standards under the auspices of TC278, WG12 49

Table 5: Standards produced by TC 331 50

1  Introduction

This paper is part of the WP3 : Synthesis of a sharable multimodal framework – input to standardisation in the Themis project.

The task is described as:

Task 3.3: Review of current status of standardization (task leader: TFK )

Objective: / To review the current status of standardization proposals and achievements in the field of freight intermodal transport and discover the gaps and necessary activities.
Approach: / Review of CEN/TC278 work, bibliographical material, relevant project results. Interviews with national standards organizations.
Expected results: / Current status of standardization in intermodal freight transport.

2  Abbreviations

AEI / Automatic Equipment Identification
AVI / Automatic Vehicle Identification
BIC / Bureau International des Containers et du Transport Intermodal
CEN / European Committee for Standardization
DSRC / Dedicated Short Range Communication
EAN / European Article Numbering
EDIFACT / Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport
IEC / International Electrotechnical Committee
IEEE / Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
ISO / International Organization for Standardization
ISSS / Information Society Standardization System
ITS / Intelligent Transport Systems
JTC1 / Joint Technical Committee 1 of ISO and IEC
SSCC / Serial shipping container code
UIC / Union International des Chemin Ferre
UPC / Universal Prodcut Code
UPU / Universal Postal Union
XML / Extended mark-up language

3  Management Summary

This report identifies the different areas that are considered relevant for standardisation in the field of IT support for intermodal transport. It looks at the aspects that make it possible to identify a certain shipment, transportation units and vehicles and their whereabouts. It also looks at the are of communication information: In what context and how is information exchanged. The area of traffic information is also considered.

The bulk of standards investigated and considered most relevant for the theme of THEMIS deals with the identification of intermodal transport units and vehicles. Even more then the selling of traffic information this is an area of large scale commercial interest. Identification is at the core of the most important functions in intermodal transport:

·  Providing the basis for paperless document flow (EDI)

·  Enabling tracking of transport units and goods along the transport chain.

Standardisation of identification issues are treated in detail and the roles and functions of organisations and standardisation bodies are often explained in relation to this subject.

The report does not claim to have researched the subject in full detail and it does not consider all standards and the bodies concerned which develop them. Also a comprehensive “situation report” would only provide a view on individual bits and pieces which are missing rather than identifying underlying and more structural problems. The fact e.g. that the transport industry largely refrains from participating in standardisation is a grave problem that should be addressed urgently. Standards are often made by the hardware industry and proper transport know-how is lacking in such working groups.

The following are the main conclusions and recommendations:

·  In principal the area of standardisation is well attended in Europe

·  There are few missing standards and most of the gaps are being attended to already

·  Europe plays an important role in intermodal transport and it is thus instrumental in the related normalisation work

·  Unfortunately the work Europeans do in standardisation is not getting a good measure of support from the Commission or other bodies. There is a lack of co-ordination and orchestration

·  In the past there was a lack of standards on a “useful higher level” but the report looks at new activities which promise improvements

·  Standardisation is too slow. See chapter 8 and in particular chapter 8.4 for the impressive range of work items and the corresponding backlog of applicable standards. Alternative ways are discussed in the report

Effectively there is no marketing for standardisation in Europe. The bodies concerned, such as CEN, can barely maintain the necessary administration work with the available funding. A well co-ordinated, powerful marketing of standardisation and standards should receive significant support.

Another important finding regards meta-level work. These conceptual or framework standards are not very popular with the makers of standards as the work usually does not provide an immediate result that would pay back in new products or services. The resulting frameworks etc. therefore tend to be of little impact and seem to serve the academic world more than real life implementations.

The complex situation of intermodal transport requires, though, some meta-level work. A good example is the CEN ISSS MEET workshop, which addresses the end-to-end tracking of parcels. Another positive move is the work in TC278 with the standard “Intermodal goods transport - Architectures and Terminology”. These activities are closer to real applications and also provide the platform for detail standards.

THEMIS is well advised to support the work on the meta-level more than anything else. This work may happen in “traditional” standardisation groups, but alternative paths, such as

·  CEN ISSS workshops

·  Lobbying or industry groups

·  European consensus building organisations

The CEN workshop is a neutral tool that helps to cast - essentially anybody’s ideas into a practical and acceptable shape.

Industry groups, such as the automotive and the electrotechnical industry are usually well equipped to assess, promote and even conduct standardisation large scale. Unfortunately the transport industry is lacking such interest group. Perhaps the most important conclusion of this report is not that we can pinpoint the lack of a standard here and there but rather the unfortunate and unhealthy absence of the transport industry in the vast majority of standardisation activities. This is particularly true for the transport operators and organisers, such as forwarders and agents. During its life-cycle the THEMIS project should undertake to identify and support ways of how to change this situation. One way could be the planning and founding of a consensus building organisation and/or the co-operation with existing ones, such as ERTICO.

4  Methodology and Coverage

This report has one aim: To identify what should be done with respect to standardisation and to suggest ways to go ahead. It implies that standardisation is a driving factor for the dissemination and market penetration of intermodal transport.

The report first sets out to support and to specify this assumption. In other words: It defines principal areas in which standardisation is considered useful and which should thus be supported. “Areas” for the purpose of this text are the different aspects of standardisation, such as identification, traffic messages, and transmission of data. This part of the work also deals with the coverage of the report: How far, how deep, how detailed is the work carried out.

The relevant standardisation bodies, their structures and the working groups related to intermodal issues are identified. Relevant projects, e.g. funded by the European Union are investigated elsewhere in the THEMIS project. Comprehensive table can be consulted there.

This report focuses on information and related aspects. The vast domain of normalisation dealing with physical characteristics, such as the measurement of transportation units, is not considered.

5  The Role and Relevance of Standards

5.1  Areas of Standardisation

For the sake of THEMIS the standardisation areas considered revolve around the following elements of transport:

·  Identification of transport units (e.g. containers), transport compounds (e.g. trains), consignments, personnel, etc.

·  Business processes

·  Traffic information

·  Logistical chain aspects (e.g. tracking, intermodal nodes)

·  Messages

·  Messaging

·  Quality

Illustration 1: Physical aspects of relevant areas

All elements of relevance for standardisation are sub-sequently explained and broken down.

5.1.1  Identification

Identifying a unit in transport is of fundamental importance. See Illustration 2 for the complexity in which commercial transport operates. The number of levels can be higher than what is illustrated, and the individual cases can be quite complex (e.g. a consignment or shipment can be spread over more than one container). Note that the number of different levels of identification does not constitute a problem a such but rather the fact that there are different “owners” of the identifications schemes and of the ways the identifications are

·  governed = the general philosophy

·  issued = the commercial and managerial aspects

·  controlled = who implements the scheme and the actual identification elements

·  enforced = what quality elements are related to the scheme

Such consideration are also relevant for the other areas of standardisation as mentioned in chapter 5.1 but will be only detailed for the subject of identification. The findings of this chapter are of principal relevance and can thus be transferred to the other areas. It should be noted that the term “transportation unit” is used in this text for anything designed to hold items or units to be transported. There are definitions of much higher granularity in the transport world, but for the sake of this text they are not required.

First of all it need to be discussed, why there are different “schemes” for identification. A lot has to do with history and usefulness. Starting with the most atomic element, i.e. the product, the most widely used identification scheme in Europe is the EAN code (European Article Numbering), commonly associated with the familiar bar code. This code and the machine readable bar code is convenient, easy to attach, inexpensive, and it can be read by humans and machines alike. It is governed by EAN international organisation and national EAN organisations control the issuing of codes, check the quality and enforce any illegitimate or incorrect use. The EAN code is normalised. It is relevant for the end (consumer) product but is also used for assemblies of products, like a number of end products assembled to a larger unit as in the illustration. Note that the product code has a physical element in that it is printed on the product or the respective package.

The product coding of EAN is very well governed, the issuing is a successful commercial enterprise, control and enforcement work very well. The most important products of EAN are the following (quoted from the EAN International web presence):

“The three main elements of the numbering system covered in here are:

·  Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)

·  Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC)

·  Global Location Number (GLN)

Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)

The GTIN is used for the unique identification of trade items world-wide.

A trade item is any item (product or service) upon which there is a need to retrieve pre-defined information and that may be priced, ordered or invoiced for trade between participants at any point in any supply chain.

The identification and symbol marking of trade items enables the automation of the retail point of sale (through price look up files), of products receiving, inventory management, automatic re-ordering, sales analysis, and a wide range of other business applications.

Examples of item receiving a unique GTIN: a can of paint sold to a final consumer, a box of 6 cans of paint, a case containing 24 boxes of 1 kilo of lawn fertiliser, a multipack of 1 shampoo and 1 conditioner.

Serial shipping container code (SSCC)

The SSCC is a standard identification number, used for the unique identification of logistic (transport and/or storage) units.

A logistic unit is an item of any composition established for transport and/or storage which needs to be managed through the supply chain.

Scanning the SSCC marked on each logistic unit allows the physical movement of units to be individually tracked and traced by providing a link between the physical movement of items and the associated information flow. It also opens up the opportunity to implement a wide range of applications such as cross docking, shipment routing, automated receiving, etc.

Examples of a logistic unit: a box containing 12 skirts in various sizes and colours and 20 jackets in various sizes and colours, or a pallet of 40 cases of 12 cans of paint.

Global Location Number (GLN)

The GLN is used to identify a company or organisation as a legal entity. GLNs are also used to identify physical locations, or functional entities within a company.