Truck & Bus World Forum

In an increasingly globalised and competitive world, the demand for freight and public transport continues to increase every year. In that context, the Truck & Bus World Forum, Solutrans trade show and the SAE International are launching the first edition of the World Transport Week in Lyon

The automotive and transport industries are facing one of the most difficult crises of their history that will deeply impact the industry. In order to support all transport stakeholders and provide them with pragmatic opportunities to meet key business partners and get all latest analysises about the transport industry, the Truck & Bus World Forum will host its third edition in Lyon 11 - 12 May, gathering over 400 international decision makers of the transport industry. The Truck & Bus World Forum will focus on “Scenarii for more efficient transport”, offering forward-looking presentations and panel discussions between over 30 top leading executives.
    
Business opportunities
To offer you even more business opportunities, The Truck & Bus World Forum, Solutrans trade show, and the SAE International decided to launch the first edition of the World Transport Week in Lyon from 11 - 16 May, thus enabling you to profit from your venue in Lyon to maximize your business opportunities. On 12 May, over 600 executives from The Truck & Bus World Forum, Solutrans and SAE International will enjoy a networking cocktail dinner offered by the city of Lyon.
    
The third edition of the Forum will start its discussion based on the statements that came out of the second edition of the Truck & Bus World Forum which took place 8 - 9 December 2008 in Göteborg. It gathered 300 executives from around the world representing 250 companies and 12 countries. 32 top executives addressed forward-looking presentations and discussions related to “Sustainable transport in the global economy”.
    
Here is below a summary of the main statements that have been done by the main truck and bus stakeholders.
    
1/ Improving fuel efficiency through longer vehicles. There is a need to have longer vehicles to improve fuel efficiency when it comes about CO2 emissions/Ton/Km.
    
2/ Smart intermodality means optimised synergies between transport modes. Intermodality does not mean modal shift but rather using each transport mode in the most efficient way. The overlap of truck and rail transportation is really limited. Therefore, we shall not talk about transport mode substitutions but rather transport modes synergies. All stakeholders shall join forces to implement better synergies between all existing transport modes.
    
3/ Optimising R&D efforts through global harmonization of worldwide legislations.
    
4/ Matching current challenges through cooperation and smart systemic approach. OEMS alone cannot respond to all environmental and safety requirements and constraints. All stakeholders of the truck and bus industries have to join forces and implement more efficient collaborations to respond to current challenges. The OEMS stated that they would be available to cooperate with the automotive suppliers to manage the funds to be given by the European institutions in the most efficient way to develop greener transport solutions.
    
5/ Developing hybrid and electrical vehicles for public transportation and urban commercial vehicles. Electrical and hybrid technologies can be used for public transportation and light commercial vehicles within urban areas. However these technologies are not relevant for long distances trucks that will still have to rely on liquid fuels in the future.
    
6/ R&D efforts to be continued on second generation bio fuels. Second generation bio fuels are promising fuels. However there are still lots of R&D efforts to be carried out to develop the most efficient bio fuels. Moreover, there is a urgent need for collaboration between industries and regulatory bodies in order to create relevant and shared standards related to bio fuels.
    
7/ Future fuel efficiency gains will come from improved powertrain solutions but even more from longer vehicles, aerodynamics, wider vehicles. There is still some potential in developing more efficient powertrain solutions but there is even more gains to expect when it comes about fuel efficiency thanks to longer vehicles, improved aerodynamics and wider vehicles.
    
8/ ITS as key factor to improve transport flows. ITS solutions will really enable to implement more efficient transport flows. All technological or system solutions should be analysed and implemented to use transport systems in the most efficient ways as possible.
    
9/ China, Brazil and India still expect growth in transport demands. Even if these countries are facing the crisis, market growth forecasts are still interesting and these countries are eager to develop more and more technological advanced vehicles.
     
9/ Who will bear the costs of available road safety technologies? Lots of road safety technologies are available such as: ESP, ACC, Lane guard systems. All these technologies can be fit into a truck but it will cost around 4,000 Euros. Who will have to pay for it?
    
10/ Urgent need from the EU to stimulate the demand and support R&D efforts to remain competitive. In addition to this, all stakeholders will have to develop an even more integrated approach to share the costs of next improvements to be implemented not only through vehicles but infrastructures, ITS, intelligent and optimised logistics, drivers training…
    
The Truck & Bus World Forum gathers professionals and decision makers in an open international forum to exchange cutting-edge strategies and technical information, address industry issues and challenges to develop sound business solutions to keep on developing better transport solutions for a better life.
    
The Truck & Bus World Forum is supported by the Rhône-Alpes Region, Grand Lyon, Drire, ERAI, Lyon Urban Truck & Bus cluster, INRETS, IFP, Chamber of Commerce of Lyon, Renault Trucks, Irisbus, Rhodia and Inoplast.

Forwarding looking analysis: The Truck & Bus World Forum intends to address international stakes related to public transport and goods distribution.
    
Networking of international top executives: The Truck & Bus World Forum gathers in an interactive way: worldwide corporate leaders from the Truck & Bus manufacturers, automotive Tier 1 & 2 suppliers, key decision makers involved in the policies of displacement, private companies taking care of public transportation, experts from international bodies, academic researchers in economy, technology and social sciences.
    
Think and Do Tank: The Truck & Bus World Forum intends to favour concrete actions and strategies to be implemented to develop sustainable transport solutions.

Event timetable
11-12 May   
The Truck & Bus World Forum (11th-12th) will offer forward looking analysis related to “Scenarii for more efficient transport solutions” addressed by 30 worldwide top executives speakers and over 400 international delegates.
12-16 May   
Solutrans, major European trade show related to transport solutions, will gathers a comprehensive international offering of products, services and technologies.  www.solutrans.fr
13-14 May   
SAE International (13 - 14) will offer forward looking conferences related to Commercial Vehicles with a special focus on “Improving Efficiency and Reliability through Electronics”.  www.sae.org