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Description
This study details a transport mode, a specific technology option in a specific country. In particular, this study covers truck platooning in road transport, with the focus on Australia. The Transport 2040: Automation, Technology, Employment – The Future of Work Report identified a series of key trends in the context of future transport technologies vis-à-vis transport workers’ employment situation and the wider ramifications on the market. Some of these trends are mode-specific, technology-specific, or specific to a certain geographic location and thus they do not develop in the same manner in all local contexts.
Vehicle automation in the road sector, with all its potential implementation scenarios, has been high on the political agenda for a number of years now, with its promise of road safety and transport efficiency improvements. In the absence of clarity as to when, in what shape and for which purpose high levels of automation will be implemented, truck platooning (also often referred to as truck automation) is often quoted by experts as one of two likely first-use cases to be realised, the other one being shared mobility public transport services in urban centres.
Australia is an interesting geographic region to consider truck platooning in more detail, both in terms of offering an enabling environment and in its possible integration into business models or problem solving through using this technology. The expert discourse on road vehicle automation is often very technology focused, starting with the solutions rather than analysing problems and responses first. The huge distances and dispersed communities in Australia have long posed specific transport problems, with unique solutions having been devised and implemented.
Key technologies in this context are, first, the emergence of “road trains”, i.e. very long combinations of up to three trailers being pulled by a truck. While their safety is generally guaranteed because of their use in remote areas – admittedly, accidents can happen in remote regions although their occurrence is far less likely than in populated regions – more recent technologies, such as the Intelligent Access Program (IAP), are using tracking technologies to limit usage to predefined safe corridors. Truck platooning, where multiple trucks are operated with minimum headways using “virtual tow-bars”, could be then seen as the logical next step. In addition, fully autonomous vehicles are already in operation in Australian mines.
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.21677/itf.20190814
ISBN
978-91-984865-7-5 (Print) 978-91-984865-8-2 (Online)
Publication Date
2019
Publisher
World Maritime University
City
Malmö
Disciplines
Operations and Supply Chain Management | Technology and Innovation