A truck and its load are stolen every two minutes somewhere in Europe. Many of these crimes could be prevented with the help of technology. The Volvo Group has taken on the challenge of helping to reverse the trend.
The Volvo Group has always been firmly committed to safety in and around its vehicles. While safety traditionally refers to the prevention of accidents, recent years have seen the emergence of a new, related area, known as security. Security can be defined as the prevention and limitation of antagonistic threats, caused by crime or terror, as well as natural disasters or escalating accidents.
Recent years have witnessed several terror attacks against the critical transportation infrastructure targets, such as road vehicles and airplanes, as well as trains, buses and underground transport. These asymmetrical societal threats have caused transportation security issues to leap to the top of the political agenda. Road transport is currently the dominant freight solution in the EU, accounting for approximately 72 per cent of land-based transport. According to unofficial data, a truck and its load are stolen every two minutes somewhere in Europe, amounting to a total of some 200,000 incidents per year.
Motivated by these growing threats, the Volvo Group has come to take the transportation security issue very seriously, both from a short and long-term research and development perspective. The Volvo Group is currently participating in national and international research programmes, as well as standardisation initiatives, all of which are aimed at developing harmonised industry solutions to emerging freight security threats. They include the European Union’s Framework Programmes for research, the ISO TC223 ‘Societal Security’ standard and the Transported Asset Protection Association Europe (TAPA-EMEA).
GPS, Telematics and Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) already facilitate the detection and tracking of both vehicles and loads. Geo-fencing is a solution for connecting information or restrictions to the geographical position of the vehicle which will soon be available on the market, along with other services for monitoring the situation around the vehicle. Research is currently under way to develop a remote wireless intervention system which could enable controllers to shut a vehicle down, disable it from re-starting after a stop, or limit its speed, all from a remote location.
Another area in which technology is already available in principle is identification, whereby a driver must prove his or her identity before a truck can be started or a load can be removed. However, more research is required to evaluate the best way in which to utilise this. Connected alarm services for both vehicles and transport objects are also subject to further development.
Due to technological advances within electronics and IT, it is now possible to develop most of these services. Even though the individual technologies are already available, the current challenge is to develop integrated, comprehensive solutions that are robust and reliable and not easily undermined. Another key challenge is to facilitate interoperability between various industries, authorities and security actors. More specifically, an infrastructure must be created for robust communication and the flexible exchange of information. In this context, IT security is also of the greatest importance.
The Volvo Group has always been at the cutting edge when it comes to safety. Over the coming years, it also intends to create a range of new business-adapted security systems, to meet growing customer demands in this challenging area.