Telematics applications have been introduced in the transport sector in order to improve the effective use of infrastructure networks, on the one hand, and to optimize the performance of the firm, on the other. In general, there is a lack of micro-based research in analyzing telematics applications. In this paper the familiarity, adoption use, and investment plans of commercial freight transporters with respect to a number of these technologies, on the basis of a survey conducted in the Netherlands in 1994 is studied. Results show, amongst other things, that: (1) markets for the various technologies are far from saturated; (2) adoption follows usual innovation diffusion patterns, with large firms being the first adopters; (3) automatic vehicle location systems are used only in combination with mobile telecommunications technologies. (A)
Abstract