In the last few years, tools have been developed based on different communication means with the purpose of achieving a safer, more efficient and environment friendly operation of the vehicular flows in the transport systems. Some of the early means generally involved a very strong human participation. In the course of time and with the rapid progress made in electronics, telecommunications and computer systems, such processes have become automated until generating a series of technologies that currently are incorporated into the single generic term of "Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)". The purpose of this paper is multiple-fold. First, some characteristics of the road freight transport in Mexico are presented. Then, considering such characteristics, the ITS technologies with the largest potential for application to that transportation type are described. A vision on future implementation is shown. Some conclusions are presented. (A*)
Abstract