Minutes EEG2 meeting 7 and 8 February 2000

Minutes EEG2 meeting 7 and 8 February 2000

EEG2 Participants


Notes

1. Opening

The Chair opened the meeting, thanked the UK delegation and the e-centre for hosting the meeting and welcomed the EEG2 members.

EEG2 attendance and membership

The Chair welcomed Mrs. Le Garrec from ESPO (European Sea Ports Organisation) who participated to the meeting as the Chair's guest and who will consider to become member of EEG2.

Apologies were received from Mr. Consoli, Mrs. Douet, Mrs. Hallenheim, Mrs. Stumm and Mr. Waagmeester.

Mrs. Verhelst has left SEAGHA and will hence no longer participate in the EEG2 meeting. She is replaced by Mr. Frederic Keymeulen, who was welcomed by the Chair. The meeting noted with thanks the contribution Mrs. Verhelst has made to the EEG2 work.

The agenda was approved with minor changes.

EEG2 meetings

Mr. Gustavsson informed EEG2 of planned arrangements for the next EEG2 meeting in Malmoe on 14 and 15 June 2000. EEG2 is being invited from about 16:30 hours on 14 June to visit the new bridge-tunnel connecting Sweden and Denmark, with a subsequent invitation for dinner. A pre-booking has been made at a hotel for the nights of 13 and 14 June (and extension of the pre-bookings before or after the meeting will be investigated). Mr. Gustavsson will inform the Secretary in due time for members to make their individual bookings.

It was agreed that EEG2 will meet on 14 June (9:30-16:00 hours) and WETIGG on 15 June 2000.

The following EEG2 meeting will be in Prague on 21 November 2000 to continue until 22 November 13:00 hours. The WETIGG meeting in Prague will start in the afternoon of 22 November to continue on 23 November 2000.

Meetings in 2001 are set for the months February (provisionally scheduled for Brussels or Paris), June (Cardiff) and November (place to be decided).

2.Minutes of the last meeting (9 and 10 June 1999, Helsinki)

The minutes of the meeting of 9 and 10 June 1999 (see EEG2/99.051) were approved with the following changes:

  • page 2, item 1, first paragraph: read "Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications" instead of Finnish Ministry of Transport;
  • page 5, item 11, last sentence: add "for road transport" at the end of the sentence.

The action list was updated, see action list in these minutes.

3.Notes from the Chairman/Secretariat

EWG

The Chair reported on the coming election of EWG Chair and Vice-Chair at the meeting in March 2000 in Paris. Candidates are sought for.

CEN/EBES/TCC/TAG:

  • The Chair attended the EBES workshop on 29 October 1999 and gave a presentation on EEG2 (see EEG2/00.016).
  • Mr. Davies had checked a Scottish project that was mentioned at the last EEG2 meeting. The project had no specific relevance for EEG2.
  • The Secretary reported on the TAG meeting, where difficulties has arisen over the IFTMSC submission (see also item 6).

European Union

The Chair attended a seminar on multimodal transport organised by The Directorate General of Transport of the European Union held on 13 and 14 December 1999. Half a day of the seminar was spent on Information Systems. The Chair gave a presentation on EEG2. The seminar expressed a lack of co-ordination by CEN in this area, with the exception being EDIFACT.

4. Outcome of D4 (EWG Canberra)

The Chair reported on the D4 meeting in September 1999 in Canberra.

The Chair contacted EAN to obtain a formal confirmation that EANCOM2000 will be ITIGG compliant. A satisfactory reply was received.

D4 agreed a resolution not to use the CEDEX messages any more. The UN/ECE Secretary advised the Chair to liaise with ISO to change/delete the present ISO standard.

Mrs. Probert reported on a meeting of BOLERO with D4/D6 in London, where BOLERO complained about a negative attitude by EDIFACT (D6 in particular) towards BOLERO. She also reported that she has been asked by BOLERO to edit their newsletter on interoperability.

5.Implementation guidelines (WETIGG)

ITIGG meeting Canberra

Report was made of the ITIGG meeting in Canberra.

Mr. Wieting is replacing Mrs. Mead as ITIGG Co-Chair.

WETIGG activities

Mrs. Probert reported on the WETIGG meeting in December 1999, which worked on version 2 of the IFCSUM P&R in EDISIM. Input from Mrs. Douet and Mr. Wieting was reviewed.

IFCSUM P&R version 2

The meeting discussed the status of the preparation. Mrs. Probert stated that a document can be available by 16 February 2000 for circulation for the ITIGG meeting in Paris. The quality of this document will be good enough for internal ITIGG use, but perhaps not for publication outside ITIGG. ITIGG will need to discuss at the Paris meeting whether to publish this document or not.

General Recommendations

WETIGG will at its meeting on 9 and 10 February 2000 in London as a priority item finalise the new draft General recommendations for approval at the ITIGG Paris meeting.

Data Dictionary

The meeting discussed the proposal from EAN to develop a Global Data Dictionary (EEG2/00.017). The proposal was endorsed under the condition that it would be a genuine co-operation between user groups and sectors.

Odette Transport Task Force

Mr. Vankemmel reported on the newly set up ODETTE Transport Taskforce, which is working on business scenarios (using the same methodology as MIST).

Combined Transport rail/road (IFTSTA guideline)

The combined Guideline is being updated.

Mr. Dermience informed the meeting that UIC will take over the status codes for rail.

6.Data Maintenance Requests and Codes

DMR Status

Mrs. Probert reported on a problem she found in the COPINO message in the draft D00A Directory. Thanks to the DAT group the problem has been resolved.

All outstanding DMR's from the ITIGG (Yokohama) list have been forwarded to TAG now.

New DMR's

The following DMR’s were discussed:

  • EEG2/00.007: because of the move to delete all codes in de 1131, it was agreed to not move the DMR forward; instead an action will be taken by the Secretary through CDWG to add this code to the code list of UN Recommendation 5 (that should contain the Incoterms 1980, 1990 and 2000). For this Mr. Pauna will extract a list of codes for Incoterms from the present codes for de 1131; Mr. Mellquist will check the situation of the Combiterms in Sweden;
  • EEG2/00.008: withdrawn;
  • EEG2/00.009: withdrawn; use code ACG (Chargeable Weight) in de 6313 (in D99B and onwards) instead;
  • EEG2/00.010: agreed, but if necessary at TAG accept either an extension of code 9 or a restriction of this requested code to bar-coded handling units;
  • EEG2/00.011: to be distributed as a discussion paper for the D4 March meeting;
  • EEG2/00.012: will be forwarded as an unapproved discussion paper to ITIGG;
  • EEG2/00.013: will be forwarded to D4 for further consideration;
  • EEG2/00.019: to be forwarded by the Secretary to CDWG as it concerns UN Recommendation 24; the Secretary to inform IATA of this and of the relevant DMR form.

Mr. Dermience raised the issue that with the coming deletion of codes in de 1131 also the codes for type of location will be deleted. Mrs. Probert will prepare a discussion paper on this issue for ITIGG.

CDWG

The Secretary reported on the meeting of the CDWG (CEFACT Code Working Group) on 30 November - 2 December 1999.

The updated UN Recommendation 24 (extended to Trade and transport Status Codes) and the new Recommendation 30 (on the use of the Harmonised System) are up for approval at the CEFACT meeting in March 2000. UN Recommendation 5 (Abbreviations of Incoterms), 19 (Modes of Transport), 21 (Types of Cargo, Packages and Packaging Materials) and 28 (Types of Means of Transport) are in development.

CDWG has updated almost all codelists, which will become available through the UN Website in February 2000 for a 2 month review period. The Secretary will inform EEG2 as soon as the code lists are available.

Mr. Dermience raised concern about the code list for rail types of means of transport in the new UN Recommendation 28.

UN-LOCODES

The UN-LOCODES sub group of CDWG met on 29 November 1999 for the first time. There is some improvement in the maintenance of the UN-LOCODES, although there is still concern about apparently existing bilateral arrangements and a too closed maintenance of the UN-LOCODES database.

Mr. Keymeulen reported that the situation of the Belgian UN-LOCODES has improved.

An update of the UN-LOCODES on the UN Website has been planned.

An issue is the relation between the IATA codes and the UN-LOCODES, as IATA is not using the country prefix and is extending the IATA codes with other than airport codes.

7.Other message progression

Travel Messages

Pending

IFTMSC

The situation of the IFTMSC (which submission did not pass TAG yet) will be discussed informally at the EWG meeting in Paris with T1.

HANMOV

The recasted HANMOV (EEG2/00.020) including the reporting functionality was agreed. It will be on the D4 agenda and then forwarded for the TAG meeting in May 2000. The Secretary will liaise with Editransport (Mr. Bompani) for the final TAG submission.

8. Preparation of D4 (EWG Paris)

The meeting discussed the D4 meeting in Paris in the week 20-24 March 2000.

The D4 Chairmanship needs to be (re-)elected at this meeting.

EEG2 endorsed the continuation of Mr. Vankemmel as D4 Chair and Mr. Spoormaker as Vice-Chair. An announcement of the D4 elections will be sent to the D4 members shortly.

It was proposed to start the item of XML-EDI (for which a day is scheduled) early on Tuesday and discuss ITIGG from Wednesday onwards. It is envisaged that D4 will meet on Friday morning as well.

A presentation on UML will be scheduled during the XML-EDI day on Tuesday

An E-commerce Open Day will be held on Thursday 23 March 2000. Mr. Davies agreed to give a 20 minutes presentation about the D4 work at this Open Day.

The Chair announced that Editransport, at the occasion of its 10 year existence, invites all D4 members for a social event on Tuesday 21 March 2000.

9.BEST

The Secretary reported on BEST developments.

BEST has filed a request for financial support to the European Commission (DG7, the Directorate-General for Transport). The Chair has contacted DG7 recently, but unfortunately DG7 is in a process of reorganisation.

The Secretary has collected material to fill the BEST Website with content. He will liaise with Mrs. Probert to update the BEST Website with this material, which may involve a slight change of the Website. The aim is to have the BEST Website fully up before the D4 meeting in Paris. The issue was discussed whether it would not make sense to put the ITIGG documentation on the BEST Website, rather than having documents split over 2 Websites.

BEST is applying for the status of Issuing Agency for the Barcode Licence Plate. Some further information is required which the Chair and the Secretary will sort out separately. The proposal of Mr. Vankemmel for the administration of licence plate numbers (EEG2/00.014) was discussed and will be amended by Mr. Vankemmel to give rules for the acceptance of national organisations and to avoid work for regular audits. A questionnaire will be circulated to BEST members to investigate which organisations will apply for sub IAC.

10.Electronic Commerce

ebXML

Mrs. Probert and Mr. Pauna reported on the ebXML meeting in Orlando in the week 31 January - 4 February 2000. Some 125 persons attended the ebXML meeting, of which nearly 35 participated in the Core Components group, which Mrs. Probert and Mr. Pauna attended.

The WETIGG discussion paper (EEG2/00.002) was registered as a reference paper.

The next ebXML meeting is in the week of 8-12 May 2000 in Brussels.

CommerceOne is totally committed to ebXML. Others (such as Microsoft) are participating, but are more awaiting future acceptance of ebXML results by the market. It will be important that parties such as ERP-providers use ebXML as their link to XML.

From the EDIFACT groups EEG2 seems to be the only one at the moment taking an active interest. This is important for the transport sector as much of the input into ebXML comes from trade.

ebXML will not deliver a transfer mechanism from EDIFACT to XML, but rather a common syntax independent modelling mechanism, that can then be used in the various environments (EDIFACT, XML-EDI, etc..)

ebXML consists of the following groups:

  • Requirements
  • Business Process
  • Technical Architecture
  • Core Components
  • Transport and packaging
  • Registry and Repository
  • Marketing
  • Technical Co-ordination

The Core Components Group investigates:

  • Data Dictionary
  • Re-usable components
  • Context

The Core Components Group will develop entity models for each of the main components which have been identified. In the period May-August 2000 data definitions and (XML-) tagging will be developed for these entity models.

It is essential that the ITIGG work is reflected in the models, which will require more ITIGG and WETIGG work in the coming half year. This needs to be discussed at the D4 meeting in Paris, as well as conveyed to the transport sector.

The question was raised of how much ebXML will be able to do during the time of the project (this year), which will probably only be the main core components, leaving other (sector specific) components to be done.

The meeting discussed the business reasons for moving to the ebXML work, as the transport sector may not be open to changing existing successful EDI implementations and as still much ITIGG work needs to be done for a good quality version2 of the IFCSUM P&R. The ebXML Marketing Group will be asked by Mrs. Probert for the business reasons they see to move to ebXML.

The meeting agreed that the business reason to move to ebXML is to expand the present EDI implementations in a way that ensures that EDI-XML is used in the standardised ebXML way such that integration with other applications (such as with ERP-systems) is achieved.

EEG2 will request D4 to work urgently on input to ebXML on entity models for core components. Contribution from other D4 members will be sought for. A statement on this will be prepared by the Chair and Mrs. Probert.

The meeting discussed the available options:

  1. Doing nothing;
  2. Move existing EDI messages through a direct method to EDI-XML;
  3. Move existing EDI message to EDI-XML by developing business models (in UML: Unified Modelling Language)

It was agreed that option 3 was the best method, but should be done without disrupting the user. A marketing effort to the transport sector is hence required.

XML-EDI

Mr. Mellquist reported on the XML-EDI workshop of CEN in October 1999 and the coming workshop meeting on 10 February 2000. Mr. Mellquist has collated a number of relevant documents on XML-EDI, which will be published through the BEST Website. CEN co-ordinates input into ebXML from the XML-EDI, Electronic Commerce and EBES Workshops.

Mr. Mellquist presented the approach of the PHAROS project to the transformation of EDIFACT messages to EDI-XML. He stressed the importance of not doing this directly, but to go through the development of independent business models. This view was supported by EEG2, who endorsed a statement on this issue from Mr. Mellquist to the XML-EDI Workshop.

MIST

MIST has discussed comments on the MIST terms. An updated document will be available for discussion at the D4 meeting in Paris.

The MIST report on scenarios for all modes of transport is scheduled to be available in June 2000.

11.Co-operation with other communities

Trans-Core project of EAN/UCC

The next Trans-Core meeting will be held on 28 March 2000 in Paris. This may be the last Trans-Core meeting if Trans-Core restricts itself to modelling. The Chair will inform Trans-Core of the envisaged ebXML modelling work, which Trans-Core might wish to take into account in its present models.

IATA Cargo Group

The Chair reported on the meeting of the IATA Cargo Group on 12-15 October 1999 in Paris (EEG2/00.022). Points of interest were:

  • IATA is working on a new message for barcoded captured data; D4 may consider to develop a generic multimodal EDIFACT message for this;
  • IATA has published 2 version 2 Cargofact Manual books, but has at present no plans for further publication of the 2 other Cargofact books;
  • The Chair gave a presentation of the D4/ITIGG work, which raised a lot of interest.

IATA is more interested to co-operate now, certainly on XML-EDI.

ETSI user group

The Chair attended a meeting of the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standard Institute) user group. ETSI has some 100 permanent members. The ETSI user group deals with issues as exchange of data with mobile and a universal user id.

12.Transport statistics

Mrs. Probert reported on the status of the projects on Transport Statistics.

The Maritime Directive is live and has 100% coverage now. The work on UN-LOCODES is very much followed.

For air the method of collecting flight data is being investigated.

A proposed new rail regulation is in preparation.

For road the new Directive will be based on sample statistics.

Editransport (Mr. Bompani) is working for the French Ministry of Transport to trial the electronic collection of data, using RDRMES, developed on EDISIM.

Eurostat has a project on road statistics with Alcatel; selection of participating countries will take place on a meeting on 23/24 February 2000.

A representative of Eurostat may attend (part of) the D4 meeting in Paris.

Mrs. Le Garrec reported that ESPO will publish 90% of the trade figures for ports on its Website.

13.Any other business

Mr. Vankemmel reported on the AFTEI project, a study into intermodal air/rail transport funded by the European Commission (DG7), in which Editransport is involved. The first phase of the project has been finished.

Mr. Vankemmel reported on the work of Editransport on defining EDI messages for mobile communication between carriers and terminals on board of trucks. A version for the transport order will be available in March 2000. Questions were raised about using the WAP protocol for this purpose. Editransport will investigate that.

Mr. Zänker informed EEG2 that FIATA completed work on barcoding guidelines. FIATA will prepare a new version of the EDIFOR guide. Work on EDI-XML may start in Germany.

The meeting was informed that ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) has a project on e-terms.

EEG2 - ACTION LISTMeeting 7 and 8 February 2000

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