ITS Service definition
“Access to abnormal goods transport regulations” is an information service where the applicant gets country-specific information on the vehicle regulations and permit application procedures, contact persons, and guidelines for completing application forms for abnormal transports. This service provides access to the necessary information and procedures regarding abnormal transports standardised for all European States, in a language understandable to the haulier/ applicant (English and the respective national languages), and in a time frame acceptable to modern logistics.
In this service, both the necessary information and the contact details for the relevant authorities are easily accessible.
ITS Service objective
The objective of the Core European ITS Service is to provide a portal that offers all the relevant national characteristics
ITS service radar
ITS service key words
“Abnormal transports” are transports of no load or an indivisible load on vehicles or vehicle combinations that exceeds at least one authorised dimension or weight allowed in normal road traffic in the Member States where the transport will be carried out.
In the past years, traffic density has increased perceptibly, especially on the European roads. In addition, abnormal transports have also increased. The regulations for abnormal transports differ within the European countries. Furthermore, the application procedures, application forms and responsible authorities vary depending on the country.
As abnormal transport traffic increases, so does the administration effort. In particular, abnormal transports need a special permit issued by the responsible national authorities and the particular road operators from all Member States through which they want to pass. For each state, the applicant needs specific information on the regulations, permit procedures, contact persons and guidelines for completing the country-specific application forms.
The service aims to provide hauliers and truck drivers a single European portal or access point that will provide them the necessary information on abnormal transport regulations within the EU and links to national services and additional information. Examples of deployment are provided in the Deployment References Annex.
In summary, this service provides a general access to the main information and procedures regarding a specific abnormal transport, homogenised for all Member States, in a language understandable to the trucker/applicant (English and the respective national languages), and in a timeframe acceptable for modern logistics, supplying a direct link to the already existing different National web platforms.
The objective of the Core European ITS Service is to provide a portal that offers all the relevant national characteristics for abnormal transports in the Member States in a reliable, comprehensive, and interactive manner, in order to provide all the requested information needed for particular transport permits and the contact data for all relevant authorities.
Users of the services will be able to check
The service will provide the necessary information and procedures for the communication between the involved authorities and the target group. The target group consists of
As “Access to abnormal goods transport regulations” is an information service related to transport regulations it cannot be compared with the other TTIS , TMS and F&L services, which are related to the road network and road using and travelling conditions.
The graph below provides a quantification of the added value of the “Access to Abnormal Goods Transport Regulations” service regarding safety, efficiency and the environment. The applied scales for the service radar of this service are based mainly on expert view, as the available information in literature is limited.
Access to abnormal goods transport regulations is an information service where the applicant gets country-specific information on the vehicle regulations and permit application procedures, contact persons, and guidelines for completing application forms for abnormal transports.
This service provides a general access to the main information and procedures regarding a specific abnormal transport, homogenised for all Member States, in a language understandable to the trucker/applicant (English and the respective national languages), and in a timeframe acceptable for modern logistics, supplying a direct link to the already existing different National web platforms.
It is planned to build an umbrella that combines all national services. One possible way for an umbrella is the web service TransportXXL. As this project gathers around several countries using the steps developed for this service description to find and implement new participants, it offers very good knowledge about and conditions to handle the development as a comprehensive web service.
This chapter presents the website structure of the umbrella service for abnormal transports, which enables the user to gain a general overview of the topic, ‘abnormal transports’ and enquire about detailed information for each country.
In the course of its implementation, this service may require additional levels, such as, for example, specific rules regarding escort vehicles inside a Member State. To make the navigation of the website easier, graphical interfaces such as maps will be used.
The section, ‘Home’, welcomes the user in the local language (determined via user agent detection) and gives him an introduction to the content of this website. Under the headline ‘EU rules and regulations for abnormal transports’ the EU-level relevant legislation is specified and described as well as the link to National rules (see figure 1 for depicted sections Home and EU directive).
Functional requirements:
Functional advice:
The service provides information about abnormal transports in the Member States participating in the service provision. The responsibilities fall under three main scopes:
Technical support of a web service is a common task of a webmaster. The webmaster, being responsible for the technical support of the umbrella service, cooperates with the webmasters responsible for the services in the participating Member States. The accuracy and topicality of the information provided by the service and the corresponding translations are overseen by a group of experts which consists of one representative from each Member State whose rules and regulations are rendered by the service. These experts are representatives from authorities, road administrations and road operators. Every participating Member State has to appoint one representative for the expert group. This representative is the expert group’s contact to the Member States and vice versa. In addition, the expert group is supervised by a corresponding manager who coordinates the teamwork. This position will be continuously assumed by a common service provider.
For a comprehensive platform it should be strived for the transformation of an information portal to a transaction portal.
Organisational requirements:
Each participating Member State has to contribute monetary funding if the service is to be launched. The funding form will then be clarified and communicated.
In order to realise this service, resources should be made available for
The nomination of a coordinator will be useful during the development of the umbrella service.
There are other special requirements for Member States participating in provision of this service:
Technical advice:
The umbrella service incorporates existing services regarding abnormal transports. The hard- and software should be adaptable and flexible to further developments and expansions. The update and validation of the data will be conducted online with a specific content management system in connection with the concerted and documented processes defined by one responsible manager. This person in charge will be supported by a working group of national experts from each participating country.
Exchange of data:
In order to identify the requirements of a stable, safe, and sustainable ICT infrastructure, a qualified collection of proven, tested, and comparable existing services (e.g. services introduced as part of implementation of the services directive) will be compiled. Based on this, participating countries must identify hard- and software requirements from these existing services that may also be suitable or applicable to the umbrella service.
The technical requirements for the implementation of an information service for a new country will be quite low, requiring only the relevant regulations and specifications for the new country, as the existing platform will be able to handle these requests.
Technical requirement:
A bilateral information and communication system with a uniform data language enables the participants of the web service to communicate changes of national legislation more easy and convenient. In order to support future developments and services a data model like DATEX II as a language for traffic information, describing all traffic items, their condition and linkage, is recommended.
The user will experience a common look and feel of the Internet-based service. ‘Common look and feel’ means that the umbrella service will have a consistent appearance for the sections corresponding to each participating Member State. The requirements for abnormal transport approvals work under the same principle for each country, so that the user eventually becomes acquainted with the information structure. This only applies to new platforms. Already existing platforms will not have to change their web interface.
The prerequisite for the uniform interface is a common structure on the pages of the several states and direct links to respective approval authorities.
The following steps are required to launch the web service, ‘Access to abnormal goods transport regulations’ (please refer to the supplementary Part B for supporting forms and tables):
Common look & feel requirements:
After providing the webmaster with the above texts, translations, and tables, the service will be implemented in the up-and-running system, e.g. ‘Transport XXL’. The newly integrated country will then be able to access the relevant part of the CMS. After a certain period of testing, the implemented data would go live.
The levels are arranged according to their benefit for the user. Service level A stands for the minimum service available and service level three for the highest user benefit.
All necessary information on the relevant rules and regulations on abnormal goods transports will be provided in the local and international (i.e. English) languages on the website of the participating Member State connected to the other Member States. Application forms will be available in both languages.
For the provision of a service there are three main criteria:
In addition, the level of service may also be extended by a query and/or an application.
Using a query, the user will be able to check whether his transport is subject to special requirements and/or permissions or not. To do so, he must enter all relevant facts (e. g. measurements and weights) regarding his transport.
An online application and, if technically possible, the issued permission may be provided in a standardised form for related participating countries. Data already entered in the query may be transferred to the linked national services.
For the provision of a query there is one main criteria:
For the provision of an online application there is one main criteria:
Table 46 gives the Level of Service recommendations for the Abnormal Goods Transport Regulations service. The background of this concept is descripted in chapter 2.6.
Table 45: Level of Service recommendations for Abnormal Goods Transport Regulations
The levels of service are applicable for all operating environments.
[1] Dimensions are measures (height, length, width and overhang) and weights including axle loads.
