EROAD has been attending the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) World Congress for a number of years now. This year, for the first time, the Congress was held in Melbourne; 11,500 delegates with deep expertise in a number of different transportation sectors coming together to share not only their experience but also their practiced thought leadership on a wide range of operational topics.
The pain points addressed at this year’s Congress during the presentations and panel discussions were global – and centered around congestion, ageing infrastructure, etc. – and the ideas submitted to alleviate them were, without exception, innovative, inspiring and focused on a shared desire to help create a more sustainable transportation industry, improve productivity, and create smarter, more livable cities.
Government officials, regulators, and representatives from big and small companies bring their ideas to create a learning environment that’s unparalleled at this annual event.
For EROAD, this was an opportunity to have a voice at the table and to share our own subject matter expertise. Being able to mingle in a professional environment with leaders from government and industry helps cement our status as innovative thought leaders in an esteemed global community. Coming to ITS World Congress provides us an international reference point to add to our growing equity within the domestic and global markets. It’s also an opportunity for us to connect with high-ranking officials, raise EROAD’s brand profile, nurture relationships, and help open doors to new partnerships and business opportunities.
At this year’s ITS World Congress, it was clear that the concept of road user charging is gaining global acceptance as a solution to an increasingly compromised and underfunded infrastructure. There was also a focus throughout the event on sustainability, electric vehicles, tolling and congestion pricing, data analytics, autonomous vehicles, and safety. These topics have close links to the work we do at EROAD, from providing aggregated, anonymized data to help build a complete understanding of real-time traffic flows, to partnering with insurance companies, and with our motor carrier customers to reward safe driving.
The innovative solutions to transport problems we see at ITS World Congress are things we can take back to generate new partnerships and opportunities for EROAD – perhaps around interoperability, for instance. However it’s also critically essential that the benefits we derive from the event flow on to our motor carrier customers.
While carriers wouldn’t choose a technology provider solely based on their ability to innovate, we know that replacing manual, paper-based systems with our broad platform of electronic solutions enables them to run more productive and profitable businesses. We are confident motor carriers, drivers and also partners will see immediate and quantifiable benefits through readily available data and analytics around that information. In essence, providing ‘news you can use’ has to be the end game for any provider serving the trucking industry.
EROAD presentations
Gail Levario: Use of Data Analytics to Help Revolutionize the Heavy Vehicle Insurance Market
Nina Elter: Implementing an Electronic Road User Charges Solution
Steven Newman: Benefit Analysis of an Electronic Road Use Charge System