The purpose of the International Forum for Heavy Vehicle Transport & Technology is to promote and support the development of road freight transport technology, safety and policy and to  facilitate information exchange between researchers, policy makers, regulators, road agencies and the transport industry. It does this by running regular international symposia, electronic discussion groups and other relevant initiatives.

The first International Symposium on Heavy Vehicle Weights and Dimensions was hosted by the Roads and Transport Association of Canada in Kelowna, British Columbia, in 1986.

The Forum was started in 1992 in Cambridge, UK,  during the Third International Symposium on Heavy Vehicle Weights and Dimensions, under the name: International Forum for Road Transport Technology (IFRTT). At the end of 2019 this name changed to the current name: International Forum for Heavy Vehicle Transport & Technology (HVTT Forum). In this way, the name of the Forum fits better with the name of the symposia organized by the Forum every two years.

The first President of IFRTT was Byron Lord of the US Federal Highway Administration. The current President is Loes Aarts of Rijkswaterstaat (Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management) in the Netherlands.



SinceCambridge, further symposia have been held as follows:

·        HVWD4: 1995 Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

·        HVWD5: 1998 Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia

·        HVWD6: 2000 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

·        HVWD7: 2002 Delft, The Netherlands

·        HVWD8: 2004 Misty Hills, Johannesburg, South Africa

·        HVWD9: 2006 Penn State University, USA

·        HVTT10: 2008 LCPC/ENPC, Paris Marne-la-Vallee, France. Held in conjunction with theICWIM 5

·        HVTT11: 2010 Melbourne, Australia

·        HVTT12 – 2012 Stockholm, Sweden

·        HVTT13 – 2014 San Luis, Argentina

·        HVTT14 – 2016 Rotorua, NewZealand

·        HVTT15 – 2018 Rotterdam, Netherlands