FedEx and Volvo Believe Platooning Will Revolutionize Trucking

Last month, Volvo Trucks and FedEx teamed up to demonstrate a three-truck convoy on a stretch of North Carolina 540 known as the Triangle Expressway, an area designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation for piloting advanced vehicle technologies. Volvo Trucks executives estimated that some fleet customers could achieve fuel savings of up to 10 percent using platooning.

Outfitting trucking fleets with vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology offers a host of benefits because when the trucks can share information about braking activity, direction, speed and potential obstacles they can maintain a closer-than-usual following distance, forming a convoy that reduces drag and boosts fuel efficiency. The tight formation, or platoon, also can reduce traffic congestion and react quickly to potential obstacles.

Many stakeholders, including trucking manufacturers, fleet operators, academic institutions and government bodies, see the benefits of perfecting these platooning practices and have been testing this technology on the roads.

Although automated consumer vehicles are still navigating speed bumps, platooning is the first step that allows companies to feasibly test automated commercial vehicles. While improving fuel efficiency  is a main benefit of platooning technologies, the most noticeable befit are the improved safety aspects that this technology brings to the vehicle and the driver.

At the same time, Fedex drivers don’t need to start looking for new work anytime soon because they company firmly believes that they will always need our professional truck drivers and platooning technology, is more of an assist type of technology than a driver replacement.

Looking forward, Fedex is focused on the line-haul piece from this perspective on platooning.

Although we are not going to see fleets of autonomous trucks navigating our nation’s highways within the immediate future, the recent breakthroughs in platooning technology might soon make a sizeable impact on the way that goods are transported around the globe.

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