Preface

The US Department of Transportation, with support from the Intelligent Transportation Society of America and other organizations and agencies, is sponsoring an Intermodal Freight Identification Technology Workshop. The June 1998 workshop will bring together 125 invitees in Reston, Virginia, to explore alternatives to better harmonize approaches to freight identification in different industry segments.

Leaders from the public and private sectors will address interoperability issues in intermodal freight location and identification. The goal is to engage in a collaborative dialogue that leads attendees to:

• Identify and articulate potential benefits of greater harmonization in using freight identification technologies
• Identify candidate projects that will help to achieve the desired benefits
• Draft an action agenda to achieve these benefits
• Identify organization(s) willing to lead and actively participate in the resulting agenda initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to help establish a common perspective for workshop participants who come from very different backgrounds. The author has had the benefit of a continuing dialog among a core group of professionals active in planning the workshop. Several people were especially helpful in commenting on earlier drafts and outlines: Michael Onder of the ITS Joint Program Office (JPO), M.J. Fiocco of the DOT Office of Intermodalism, Gordon Fink of ITS America, and Lance Grenzeback of Cambridge Systematics. Their contributions do not, however, absolve the author of responsibility for errors of fact and judgment.

The sponsors of the paper are ITS America and the ITS JPO. The author particularly appreciates the support of the responsible project officers, Rick Schuman at ITS America and Mike Onder at the Joint Program Office.

Please send any comments to the author at The North River Consulting Group, Box 67, North Marshfield, MA 02059-0067. Email address is noriver@worldnet.att.net. Telephone (781) 834-4169 or fax at 837-7681.

The revised version of June 14, 1998 includes only minor corrections.

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