- August 3, 2015
- 6:42 pm
- John Caltagirone
- no comments
Truck Platooning: The Future of Trucking
For those who don’t remember my post on the rapidly growing demand for truck drivers in the United States, have no fear, because a solution is in the works. The American Trucking Associate reported that by 2020 there will be a shortage of 240,000 truck drivers in the US, with movement of truckers to more stationary jobs that provide equal pay and a less rigid lifestyle.
Now a new solution has emerged, truck platooning. In simple terms, driverless trucks that will increase highway safety, reduce human error and hopefully encourage more workers into the trucking industry. More specifically, each truck has a driver, but the truck in the lead is the one that has control over the trucks behind it, allowing the truck driver in the other trucks to rest or perform other tasks.
How is this done? Easy, wireless vehicle-to-vehicle with the trucks driving merely a second behind one another. Think of it like a short train, the technology can determine the distance the two trucks are apart and allow them to communicate. There is the Leading Vehicle and the Following Vehicle, where the Leading Vehicle can adjust its speed based on the Following Vehicle.
Currently TNO, an applied science organization based in the Netherlands, is working to innovate and transform the technology to make it conceptual with logistics solutions. The scope is to restrict themselves to a two-vehicle truck concept in order to not overwhelm other drivers on the road. TNO reports that the initiative is in the wide-scale tests, technical feasibility and upscaling phase until 2019 and the first commercial application will be installed in 2020.
Automated driving by no means is far from the trend. Companies like Google have already capitalized their media coverage in regards to a driverless car that resulted in no recorded crashes when driving automation. The Google car although is different in the sense there is not communication between two vehicles.
Platooning offers lower costs, better safety, and less emissions – a win-win-win. The costs are reduced simply in terms of having an attentive driver in the second truck, lower fuel as a result of the aerodynamics technology that will reduce air resistance, and optimize driving times.
What isn’t easy are the regulatory systems that this technology must convince in order to have this become a reality. The technology seems to be rapidly developing and will likely be executed prior to legislation will be able to approve it. It puts into perspective of the different stakeholders involved in the implementation of this technology from developers (truck manufacturers, tier suppliers), users (shippers, carriers, and platooning service providers), policy makers (local governments and ministries), and regulators (inspectors, customs, insurers).
Clearly there is evidently money and time being into researching and developing the technology and surely, a future for truck plantooning.
-Riti Patel, Assistant, Supply and Value Chain Center
Source:
“Truck Platooning: Driving the Future of Transportation.” TNO. 2015. 3 Aug. 2015 <https://www.tno.nl/en/about-tno/news/2015/3/truck-platooning-driving-the-future-of-transportation-tno-whitepaper/>.