COOPERATIVE SYSTEM FOR INTERMODAL RAILROAD

OPERATIONS

Jukka Hemilä

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland

Keywords: Decision-support system, Intermodality, Intelligent Cargo.

Abstract: The research project EURIDICE (European Inter-Disciplinary Research on Intelligent Cargo for Efficient,

Safe and Environment-Friendly Logistics) focuses on the development of intelligent solutions for the

transport sector. The basic concept of EURIDICE is an information services platform centered on the

individual cargo item and its interaction with the surrounding environment and the user. EURIDICE has

promoted the Intelligent Cargo concept as a future solution for transport sector information needs. The

platform will be implemented and tested in eight industrial transport scenarios. This paper looks at one

scenario related to intermodal railroad operations. The paper presents the functionalities of the developed

cooperative system for intermodal railroad operations and the way end-users can use the system

environment in their operations.

1 INTRODUCTION

Intermodal transport is defined as “the movement of

goods in one and the same loading unit or vehicle

which uses successively two or more modes of

transport without handling of the goods themselves

in changing modes.” (United Nations, 2009) The

intermodal operator pilot of the EURIDICE project

deals with the transportation of goods in rail wagons

by rail and sea. The core business for the intermodal

operator is the effective utilization of the wagon

fleet. The intermodal operator pilot idea is to

enhance visibility of the wagon movements by

realizing the Intelligent Cargo concept. Status

information accompanies the cargo along the flow of

goods and enables interaction with the surrounding

environment and users. Intelligence is added from a

cargo point of view of being self-aware, context-

aware, and connected to reduce the operational

effort of handling goods at the right time, in the right

way. The final aim is a cargo-centric information

chain that offers automated end-to-end information

about the logistic supply chain based on existing

technologies and standards combined with

intermediating trusted third parties. The cargo

intelligence is realized at the wagon level of the

cargo hierarchy of the intermodal operator pilot.

2 METHODOLOGY

Research is based on the multiple case studies

according to Yin (Yin, R., 2003). A concrete

transport case is the basis for the analyses. The semi-

structured interviews with the transport process

stakeholders have been organized to collect

information about the processes and system

requirements. The system has been developed

according to the end-user system requirements, and

it will be implemented, tested, and evaluated

according to a common methodology for all eight

pilots. The final system environment will be

published after findings from the test period.

3 INTERMODAL WAGON FLEET

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

An intermodal operator case is described by pilot

scenario number 6 in the EURIDICE White Paper

(EURIDICE White Paper, 2009). The main

objective is to clarify how ICT services support

efficient decision-making in intermodal wagon

operations, and three sub-objectives have been

defined as (Hemilä, J., 2010):

1. Facilitate the proposal of wagon selection

(Sub-objective 1). Automation of the wagon

247

Hemilä J..

COOPERATIVE SYSTEM FOR INTERMODAL RAILROAD OPERATIONS.

DOI: 10.5220/0003429002470249

In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS-2011), pages 247-249

ISBN: 978-989-8425-54-6

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

selection proposal on the base of the order

coming from legacy system and wagon

status, condition, position and prediction of

estimated time of arrival

2. Automated alerting and event information

about the wagon situation (Sub-objective 2).

Wagon sends the notification or alert if the

conditions inside the wagon are not within

the predefined limits, as well as to be able to

check other necessary measures concerning

the wagon.

3. Automated calculation of utilisation rates

(Sub-objective 3). The goal is to monitor

wagon utilization in order to have necessary

data for decision-making to, e.g. increase the

turnaround of the wagons.

In the development phase, we created the

software workflow to link each pilot sub-objective to

the software functions. The EURIDICE integrated

platform will have Horizontal Services for common

transport processes, such as cargo temperature

recording, deviation notification service, route

follow-up, etc. All the pilots then have several pilot-

specific EURIDICE Platform services that are only

used by individual end-users. The following

business use case model (Fig. 1) is described as a

proposal to increase the business performance of

intermodal operator by providing information to

optimise the utilisation of wagons. The following

actors are identified in business case:

• Wagon; a participating wagon managed by

intermodal operator

• Transport Manager; who manages/coordinates

the usage of wagons

• ERP; the ERP system of intermodal operator

• EPSA; The EURIDICE Pilot System

Application is developed over the EURIDICE

platform combining horizontal components

from the EURIDICE platform together with

user specific components to realise user

specific applications.

The first sub-objective deals with the automation of

the wagon selection proposal based on the order

coming from the legacy system and the wagon status

(reserved/unreserved and loaded/unloaded),

condition, position, and prediction of the estimated

time of arrival. Sub-objective 1 is realized with Use

Case 2 “Wagon selection” described in the public

project Deliverable D24.1 (EURIDICE Deliverable

D24.1, 2009). Wagons inform the Assisting

Transport manager Agent (ATA), agents described

in the public Deliverable D11.2 (EURIDICE

Figure 1: Business Use Case Model.

Deliverable D11.2, 2009), about their availability

(status, location, suitability) for the open orders. The

Assisting Transport manager Agent makes a

proposal on suitable wagons for the specific orders.

The transport coordinator confirms the proposed

selection of the wagon for the order. Sub-objective 2

“Automated alerting and event information about the

wagon situation” is realized with the use case

“Wagon definition and status monitoring.”

(EURIDICE Deliverable D24.1, 2009) With this use

case, the wagons are identified, parameters for

wagon and transport are set, and automated

deviations notification manages deviations during

the process. The wagon sends the notification or

alert if the conditions inside the wagon are not

within the predefined limits and to allow checking of

other necessary measures concerning the wagon.

The wagon also alerts when a wagon is off the

predefined transportation route or the Estimated

Time of Arrival (ETA) is going to be changed. The

automated calculation of utilization rates, Sub-

objective 3, aims to analyze how efficiently wagons

have been used. The aim is to monitor wagon

utilization in order to have the necessary data for

decision-making, e.g., to increase the turnaround of

the wagons.

Many actors other than the intermodal operator

use the system environment. The actors in the pilot

application are the consignor, consignee, railroad

operators, port operators, and ferry operator. All the

actors can have access to the pilot application, and

the services available to them are wagon location

information, wagon status updates, and ETA

updates. The system aims to create full visibility of

the wagon movement for all the stakeholders in the

process.

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4 CONCLUSIONS

The business impacts of EURIDICE are improved

transport processes and new business opportunities.

The improved transport processes can be measured

and verified with, for example, KPI’s turnaround of

wagons, loading and unloading times, the haulage of

empty/loaded wagons, delivery times, and some cost

indicators. The new business opportunities are

achieved by the possibility of measuring various

types of real time information during the transport

process and by the improved performance of the

intermodal transport. An important factor of the

EURIDICE system is that it allows the parties

involved to analyze continuously the performance of

different operators and links.

The next step is “Integration and deployment,”

which will integrate the pilot applications into the

pilot users’ existing ICT systems and deploy the

adapted EURIDICE prototypes into a functioning

demonstrator environment suitable for piloting,

training, and dissemination purposes. The final

demonstrator system will be realized according to

the pilot validation and feedback.

REFERENCES

EURIDICE White Paper, 2009. EURIDICE Project White

Paper. Available at URL: www.euridice-project.eu

(adopted January 4th 2011)

EURIDICE Deliverable D24.1, 2009. Final Application

Requirements for Intermodal Transport v1.0,

November 30th 2009. Available at URL:

www.euridice-project.eu (adopted January 4th 2011)

EURIDICE Deliverable D11.2, 2009. Detailed

Architecture Specifications, v1.0,” November 13th

2009. Available at URL: www.euridice-project.eu

(adopted January 4th 2011)

Hemilä, J., 2010. Cargo Intelligence for Intermodal

Operations in Proc. of the 15th International

Symposium on Logistics (ISL2010). Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia, July 4-7th 2010. Nottingham University.

UK (2010), p. 648

United Nations, 2009. Terminology on combined

transport, United Nations Economic commission for

Europe (UNECE). Available at URL:

http://www.unece.org/trans/wp24/documents/term.pdf.

(Adopted January 5th 2011)

Yin, R., 2003. Case study research – design and methods.

3rd edition, Applied social research methods series; v.

5. Sage Publications, Inc. 2003

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