iLOKATE: Better Use of Capacity Through Smart Data

TNO has got the open innovation program iLOKATE for transport and logistics companies under way. Transport can be made much more efficient, sustainable and cheap by gathering, enriching and deciphering public and private data from various sources via an intelligent system in a safe, structured way. Entrepreneurs participating in the project profit directly from the knowledge of TNO and the developed applications.

‘We reckon several tens of companies will want to take part,’ says Maarten Oonk, TNO’s market manager for mobility. ‘We are starting this initiative from ground level. No big system for design, building, testing and rollout but talking to individual entrepreneurs about the bottlenecks they encounter and then offering them solutions for immediate impact. If the system gets up and running for a group of companies with proven results, then we can think about scaling it up within the chain.’

iLOKATE will ensure the smarter organisation of cargo transport across the various road, rail and water modalities, saving the entrepreneur money, improving traffic flow on the roads and boosting reliability of deliveries. Savings may come through preventing unnecessary transport movements, reducing hidden costs such as delays or administration charges. In a sector where the margins are coming under pressure, that can be a great boost.

iLOKATE has to be an attractive example of what TNO calls a smart corridor: an intelligent link between hubs where flows of goods and people converge in such a way that the infrastructure is better utilized. The project is firstly geared towards making the Rotterdam-Venlo corridor smart. At both ends there are many transport and logistics companies, and all kinds of goods are transported across the three modalities. TNO is talking to entrepreneurs and parties like Connekt, Rijkswaterstaat and Greenport Venlo to create as much support as possible and to get aligned with initiatives that are already running.