Solution | Truck Control System

The Need

As part of an ambitious economic modernization strategy, Jordan began deregulating the trucking sector to improve performance in 2005. But the initial impact of these regulatory changes in Aqaba—Jordan’s sole seaport and a primary logistics center—was disappointing. The government had launched a far-reaching program to modernize and expand the ports, simultaneously attempting to create an attractive environment for tourist, commercial, and residential development, but trucks still waited in long lines, often for days, with ripple effects on service quality, port operations, pollution, and Aqaba’s development. Jordan’s Ministry of Transport and the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) turned to NTELX to mitigate the problem and to design and develop a Truck Control System (TCS) to coordinate the movements of trucks through Aqaba.

The Solution

The heart of the TCS is an intelligent transportation system, designed by NTELX and operating on NTELX’s NXfolio logistics control platform, that minimizes the time trucks spend in the Zone. The design objective was to collect, validate, and share information to minimize waiting times and unnecessary trips and to process trucks quickly and smoothly through the ports and terminals. The system reduces congestion by monitoring capacity utilization of roads and terminals and coordinates the diversion and release of trucks to and from waiting areas and other locations, including private terminals. Data interfaces to the Ministry of Transport, National Customs, and Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) Customs ensure that only trucks with valid business in the Zone are issued permits. The web applications themselves are highly intuitive and used by dispatchers, gate operators, and Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) administrators, many of whom are using such a computer system for the first time.

The impact of the TCS was immediate and dramatic. An independent evaluation during 2006 by Dr. Hani Mahmasani, William A. Patterson Distinguished Chair in Transportation at Northwestern University and past editor-in-chief of Transportation Science, concluded that TCS delivered its core objective to cut turn times. NTELX’s system improved operational efficiency, tamed congestion, encouraged trucking sector investment, and generated collateral benefits, including directly creating more than 200 new jobs, reducing truck accidents on Aqaba’s hilly roads, cutting pollution, and providing better planning data.

Now an indispensible tool for the Jordanian trade, transport, and logistics communities, these measures indicate that this unique intelligent transportation system is Jordan’s largest e-government system and likely the largest e-government system in the transportation sector regionally. The TCS won the 2009 Intelligent Transportation Society-America award for the most innovative and effective use of advanced technologies in surface transportation.  >>Learn more about the Nafith Truck Control System