Welcome to SIG B3: Freight Transport Operations and Intermodality
The World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS) provides a forum for interchange of ideas among transport researchers, managers, policy makers, and educators from all over the world, from a multi-modal, multi-disciplinary, and multi-sectoral perspective.
Within WCTRS, as part of Topic Area B, which includes freight carried by all modes of transport, Special Interest Group B3 focuses on connecting logistics and freight transport operations and intermodality.
The principal objectives are:
- Providing a platform for researchers, managers, and policymakers to exchange ideas, theories, and methods in the field of freight transport operations and intermodality
- Organizing and coordinating sessions on freight transport operations and intermodality at the WCTR conferences
- Contributing to research activities in the field of freight transport operations and intermodality
- Fostering cooperation with various research organizations
We are active on Social Media, so now via LinkedIn! get in touch with us
SIG B3 started into the World Conference on Transport Research in Montréal, Canada looking at five very interesting sessions covering topics about intermodal freight transport networks: from innovative ICT, the importance of terminals, resilience and flexibility in the face of disruptions such as Covid-19, as well as promising developments and challenges when it comes to successfully decarbonizing transport chains.
These successful sessions were complemented by two very special sessions. Organized by our Co-Chair Gunnar Stefansson from the University of Iceland, the first special session was titled “Electric, autonomous, and automatic transport and logistics operations” and talked about the challenges and opportunities which electric heavy trucks and autonomous driving offer together in transport networks.
The second special session was cooperative event organized together with the Transportation Research Board’s Intermodal Freight Transport Committee AT045: The session analyzed how to build and maintain the “right kind” of infrastructure for intermodal freight transport, and evaluated the impact of geopolitical developments and climate change. Two topically relevant presentations were followed by an invited talk by Eric Shen, member of AT045 and founder of Shen and Associates, LLC. who spoke about possibilities to address necessary shifts of freight transport in the US Southwest Region, and how to build and maintain resilient and sustainable transport infrastructure.
At the 2022 WCTRS Virtual Meet, SIG B3 organized two sessions on Climate Change – The role that freight transport can play to avoid emissions
To speed up decarbonization in freight transport, there is a need of drastic measures composed of infrastructure investments, pricing scheme and regulatory improvements. Our aim was to identify initiatives and measures which have the potential to decarbonize freight transport together with prominent representatives from research and industry.