Transport sector calls for unlocking potential of data economy
Several transport associations have called on European decision-makers to make every effort in creating a fair and transparent governance structure for business-to-business (B2B) data. This is a prerequisite to unlock the potential of the data economy. On behalf of railway undertakings, the statement was signed by the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER).
Several umbrella organisations of the European transport sector teamed up in making a joint call on the European politicians and decision-makers. Together they published a common statement regarding data and the digital economy. “Steps must be taken to ensure equal opportunities for all business partners in the digital economy. To this end, a fair and transparent governance structure for business-to-business (B2B) data is needed,” the document reads.
Five principles
One of the key obstacles for B2B data is an insufficiency of interoperability. “The lack of commonly agreed interoperable and multimodal specifications at EU level, for example, for APIs or data formats, is an issue that makes interoperability between platforms difficult and increases the risk of lock-in with a platform,” the umbrella associations noted in their statement. In addition, they specified five principles to tackle this issue:
- the voluntary provision of data;
- defining responsible actors and their functions;
- establishing certain and interoperable standards;
- skill development in critical areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and cloud computing;
- financial support especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Joint statement
The representatives of the transport, logistics and mobility sector stand ready to cooperate with each other and the European Commission to develop a framework on data specifically for the transport sector, based on the above principles. The joint statement was signed by eight umbrella organisations. Besides CER, among them are Airlines for Europe (A4E), International Road Transport Union (IRU), International Association for Public Transport authorities (UITP), European Shippers’ Council (ESC), European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA), European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA).
