Traffic message exchange for hazardous goods control systems: Project Portico

The possibilities afforded by monitoring hazardous goods movements are of considerable interest in Europe. A pilot hazardous goods monitoring system is being set up as part of the PORTICO DRIVE II project. The PORTICO hazardous goods system is based on autonomous vehicle tracking. Hazardous goods status messages are sent to the traffic control center, plus advice of accidents or other emergencies. In the other direction, traffic and meteorological information is supplied to the fleet manager. It is planned to use messages based on the EDIFACT ISO standard syntax and message elements. The hazardous goods message and the traffic message are under development, based around a common data dictionary also under development in DRIVE II. The authors describe the model for integrating the information needs of the haulers and the authorities, the message specification work, linking it to other related dependents in Europe through PORTICO and DRIVE II, and how the pilot experiment will be evaluated.