Truck platooning can potentially make road freight transportation safer and greener. Technological readiness, business opportunities, and acceptance of truck platooning have mainly been studied for multilane highways with ample truck volumes. Less is known about truck platooning in areas with low traffic volumes and challenging roads and weather conditions. This paper investigates the opportunities and barriers for truck platooning on Norwegian rural freight routes, through stakeholder interviews and realistic case examples. Given modest freight volumes, dispersed industry clusters, and challenging road conditions, this study identified several prerequisites to deploying platooning and achieving economic savings. The paper discusses the future steps required to organize platooning across carriers, ensure appropriate infrastructure, and gain acceptance among truck drivers, motorists, and other road users.
ZhangL.ChenF.MaX.PanX.Fuel Economy in Truck Platooning: A Literature Overview and Directions for Future Research. Journal of Advanced Transportation, Vol. 2020, 2020, pp. 1–10.
2.
TsugawaS.JeschkeS.ShladoverS. E.A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2016, pp. 68–77. https://doi.org/10.1109/TIV.2016.2577499.
3.
SAE. Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to On-Road Motor Vehicle Automated Driving Systems. No. J3016R. SAE International, Warrendale, PA, 2018.
4.
AxelssonJ.Safety in Vehicle Platooning: A Systematic Literature Review. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Vol. 18, No. 5, 2016, pp. 1033–1045.
5.
BishopR.BevlyD.HumphreysL.BoydS.MurrayD.Evaluation and Testing of Driver-Assistive Truck Platooning: Phase 2 Final Results. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2017. 2615: 11–18.
6.
SturmT.KrupitzerC.SegataM.BeckerC.A Taxonomy of Optimization Factors for Platooning. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Vol. 22, No. 10, 2020, pp. 6097–6114.
7.
NoruzoliaeeM.ZouB.ZhouY. J.Truck Platooning in the US National Road Network: A System-Level Modeling Approach. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Vol. 145, 2021, p. 102200.
8.
McWilliamsT.WardN.Underload on the Road: Measuring Vigilance Decrements During Partially Automated Driving. Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 12, 2021, p. 1113.
9.
BhoopalamA. K.AgatzN.ZuidwijkR.Planning of Truck Platoons: A Literature Review and Directions for Future Research. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Vol. 107, 2018, pp. 212–228.
10.
RobinsonT.ChanE.CoelinghE.Operating Platoons on Public Motorways: An Introduction to the Sartre Platooning Programme. Proc., 17th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, Busan, South Korea, 2010, p. 12.
11.
CORDIS. Cooperative Dynamic Formation of Platoons for Safe and Energy-Optimized Goods Transportation. European Commission. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/610990. Accessed May 10, 2020.
NeubauerM.SchauerO.SchildorferW.A Scenario-Based Investigation of Truck Platooning Acceptance. In Proc., Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing: International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (StantonN., ed.), Washington, D.C., July 24–28, 2019, Springer, Cham, pp. 453–461.
15.
CastritiusS. M.LuX. Y.BernhardC.LiebherrM.SchubertP.HechtH.Public Acceptance of Semi-Automated Truck Platoon Driving. A Comparison Between Germany and California. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, Vol. 74, 2020, pp. 361–374.
16.
BakermansB. A.Truck Platooning: Enablers, Barriers, Potential and Impacts. Master thesis. TU Delft, 2016.
17.
AxelssonJ.BerghT.JohanssonA.MårdbergB.SvensonP.ÅkessonV.Truck Platooning Business Case Analysis. RISE Research Institutes, Sweden, 2020.
PapaioannouD.KokkalisA.Motorway Safety in Europe and Greece: A Comparative Analysis. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 48, 2012, pp. 3428–3440.
BjerkanK. Y.SundA. B.NordtømmeM. E.Stakeholder Responses to Measures Green and Efficient Urban Freight. Research in Transportation Business & Management, Vol. 11, 2014, pp. 32–42.
EngströmJ.BishopR.ShladoverS. E.MurphyM. C.O’RourkeL.VoegeT.DenaroB.DematoR.DematoD.Deployment of Automated Trucking: Challenges and Opportunities. Road Vehicle Automation, Vol. 5, 2019, pp. 149–162.
28.
BjørgenA.SeterH.KristensenT.PiteraK.The Potential for Coordinated Logistics Planning at the Local Level: A Norwegian In-Depth Study of Public and Private Stakeholders. Journal of Transport Geography, Vol. 76, 2019, pp. 34–41.
29.
BrymanA.Social Research Methods. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2016.
30.
GallettaA.Mastering the Semi-Structured Interview and Beyond: From Research Design to Analysis and Publication. New York University Press, NY, 2013.
