POTENTIAL OF TRUCK PLATOONING FOR TRANSPORTING EMPTY TRUCKS CONSIDERING INTERCITY FREIGHT DEMAND IMBALANCES

Background: In Japan, nearly 30% of trucks run empty despite the recent difficulties in recruiting truck drivers, especially in the intercity freight transport market. If we consider the inevitable imbalance in intercity freight demand, the efficient transport of empty trucks becomes necessary to a certain extent. One such promising technology is truck platooning, which enables trucks to automatically follow the lead vehicle while maintaining minimal headway to reduce fuel consumption and minimize the burden imposed on drivers. This study proposes a new business model to utilize truck platooning technology to transport empty trucks, based on the intercity freight demand imbalances.

Methods: After analyzing the actual intercity freight transport demand imbalance in Japan, we developed an analytical model to quantify the impact of truck platooning to transport empty trucks on labor and vehicle costs. We further analyzed its impact on the intercity freight transport market and applied the model to the actual intercity freight transport market data (logistics census) in Japan.

Results: From the analysis results using the actual freight flow data collected through surveys within 3 days in Japan, the cost reduction is estimated to be 16% in the required number of trucks and 44% in the number of taking a rest time in a truck. They indicate that the proposed empty truck platooning operation has significant benefits for inter-regional freight transport, including transport-related cost and working environment of the truck drivers on long-haul routes.

Conclusions: In this paper, we proposed a new operational concept to utilize truck platooning technology for transporting empty trucks based on the intercity freight demand imbalances. Although the proposed operation has potential significant benefits, the operation assumes the relaxation of “on-duty time” regulation in the labor standard act by considering the future introduction of autonomous driving and truck platooning. As the benefit of the pro-posed operation is significant according to our analysis, this relaxation of the labor regulation is worth considering by carefully investigating the safety of the platoon operation and its impact on the driver’s working environment.