The Development of Electronic Data Exchange in Hazardous Goods Transportation

In 1997 about 52,2 million tons of hazardous goods were transported in Finland. Almost two-thirds (34,2 million tons) were transported by sea. 9,6 million tons were transported by road and 8,4 million tons by rail. The share of airway transport by tonnage was marginal; only 1,4 thousand tons of hazardous goods were transported by air. Technical systems are about to reach a level of such features and low costs, that the transport of hazardous goods could be monitored in real-time to a certain extent. The main objective of this project was to clarify the views and situations of companies dealing with hazardous goods about electronic data interchange and monitoring system. The opinions were gathered by interviewing representatives of companies sending or transporting hazardous goods. All modes of transportation were presented. According to the interviewees, the information exchange should not require additional work or increase costs. This means that the data exchange should be automated. Also strict principles about the monitoring system must be agreed, in order to keep confidential information away from unauthorised parties. The biggest problem of the monitoring system can be the great amount of information needed. In interviews the advantages of the monitoring system for the companies involved would be a better image, the improvement of actions due to positioning of vehicles, the smaller number of queries and automatisation of statistics compiling. This is especially true within shippers and road transport operators. The possible monitoring system could also include information services, which interest the companies. These could include databases of accidents, operational rules and regulations. If the monitoring system is to be developed, in the first phase the needs of authorities should be defined. In the second phase the realisation of interfaces between companies and the system should be enabled. In the third phase, when the system is developed, also features important to companies should be included in the system. These would be features, which either lower the companies' costs or improve their customer service. It is also noteworthy that the used technology basically has to be an Internet application, in order to get also small and medium-sized companies within the system. This report is available at http://www.mintc.fi