New information and telecommunications technologies in the transport sector, also called Advanced Transport Telematics (ATT), play a key role in the new European network economy, with potential to offer new solutions to emerging transport problems in Europe. However, successful exploitation of ATT in European transport markets depends on the technology being implemented in a way that meets the distinct needs of various road user groups in order to achieve social acceptance and thereby political approval. It is therefore vitally important that decisionmakers have sufficient information on needs of commercial road users and on the way the perceive ATT options in addressing those needs. The ATT market comprises a large number of actors from both the public and private sectors. At the demand side, some major potential market sectors can be identified. In addition to private users, there are intermediate or collective users, and commercial users. In the latter case, ATT may play a strategic role by facing the need of the freight sector to orient itself toward the opportunities offered by the European internal market, which has far-reaching impacts on organizations operating nationally and internationally. The aim of this work is to study the potential ATT market among the key user and interest groups, where the range of telematics applications will be restricted to those applied to interurban road transport. The focus is on collective users (road managers) and commercial users (road freight operators). Surveys and in-depth interviews were used to gather relevant information on the views, attitudes, and expectations of these potential users. This empirical information provides interesting and policy relevant insights into the potential of ATT applications for each of these market segments.
Samenvatting