Technology Support for Performance Assessment of Road Haulage

Abstract

Recent developments in wireless technology and telecommunication have made possible new types of information systems supporting fundamental activities in transport organisations. By including previously inaccessible distributed and mobile actors and equipment, this technology is a key enabler for realising the vision of integrated enterprise systems in this context. In this thesis, I focus on a particular type of transport organisation, that of road haulage firms. The term transport information systems (TIS) is used to discuss a specific type of enterprise technology, incorporating mobile aspects as well as the relevant functionalities of present enterprise systems. To capture the typical characteristics of Swedish road haulage firms and their general understanding of TIS, a qualitative interview study including 18 road haulage firms was performed. Building on the results of the study is a number of design challenges for successful adoption of such systems in this particular type of transport organisation. A subset of these design challenges is further examined through developing a prototype integrating vehicle performance data and assignment transaction information.