Biometrics fuel transport IT spending

Spending on IT by transport companies in Europe will leap up over the next three years as they start testing biometrics and other security technologies.

IT spending in the transportation industry hit $6.4bn in 2005, and analyst IDC predicts this will grown to $7.7bn by 2009.

Software continues to be the fastest growing segment overall, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 6.2 per cent until 2009. IT services will grow slower at 5.4 per cent over the period, while hardware will grow the slowest at a mere 2.4 per cent.

The security and safety of transport services is one of the major challenges for the industry, driving IT investments in security technologies, real-time advanced asset management and operation planning, the analyst house said.

It added: "Going forward into 2006, IDC expects that field trials of new technologies such as biometrics and innovative explosive detection systems will increasingly take place."

Ivano Ortis, programme manager with IDC's European vertical markets, said in a statement: "Transport and logistics organisations need the ability to react and adapt faster to changing market conditions in order to effectively counteract business threats. In this respect achieving flexible, adaptive and scalable operations will be crucial."

Standardising the information flow among different IT platforms will be critical to supporting the transportation industry's evolution, he said.