Within the CONTAIN project, the technological demonstrator EAST WEST MED based in Bologna has a paramount importance. Interporto Bologna is a central hub acting as the backyard of the ports of Ravenna, La Spezia and Leghorn and as an inland terminal and gateway‐system for intermodal services leading to southern ports of Taranto, Bari, and Naples.
Such demonstrator is a leg of the wider HINTERMED Demonstrator, which includes
- Genoa Port hub, that involves the use electronic seal;
- EAST WEST MED: La Spezia port – Bologna freight village – Ravenna port Corridor, it is coordinated by IBI and involves shipping and hinterland services.
The EAST WEST MED demonstrator provides the transport corridor and chain element to the HINTERMED Demonstrator and consequently the CONTAIN project. In detail, the EWM provides end-to-end security container management by supporting transport security stakeholders (both business and administrations) with managing container security threats within logistic chains by utilising ‘best of breed’ technology options as part of an integrated approach to the management of Door to Door (D2D) transportation networks.
EWM aims to demonstrate the full functionality of the CONTAIN Strategic Framework, through the integration of existing application with the CONTAIN Platform: EWM foresees then the application of the CONTAIN devices and the feeding of the CONTAIN Platform through them. The CONTAIN platform integrates data coming from the different technologies in order to provide support to the transport security stakeholders by managing the containers security threats dealing with the different EWM Use Cases.
An EWM preliminary test session took place in the period 26th – 30th May 2014 (“EWM Test week”) along the EWM route, using the Container MEDU3278765 and implementing the following Use Cases:
- internal environment & positioning, using CSD (Container Security Device),
- container integrity using the eSeal,
route validation through the EGNOS-enabled OBU that relies on GNSS technology positioning.
Figure 1: EWM on-field team during test demo activities at La Spezia Port
The efforts made during the test week to adapt the demonstrator’s scenario requirement, install the appropriate equipments, test the devices in real conditions and exploit the fine tuning of all logistics aspects finally resulted in:
- the successful installation of all technologies on the test container;
- the successful tests based on the Use Cases produced;
- the satisfactory performance of the integrated CONTAIN solution for the EWM test conditions.
