New research assesses potential for driver-assistive truck platooning

The Phase One Final Report of the Driver-Assistive Truck Platooning (DATP) initiative was recently released by the research team. The DATP truck platooning research, which was funded by a grant from the US Department of Transportation's Exploratory Advanced Research program, utilises radar, vehicle-to-vehicle communications and video technologies to decrease over-the-road truck headways, with the objective of improving fuel economy without compromising safety.
May 29, 2015 Read time: 2 mins

The Phase One Final Report of the Driver-Assistive Truck Platooning (DATP) initiative was recently released by the research team.  The DATP truck platooning research, which was funded by a grant from the US Department of Transportation's Exploratory Advanced Research program, utilises radar, vehicle-to-vehicle communications and video technologies to decrease over-the-road truck headways, with the objective of improving fuel economy without compromising safety.

As a core team member of the project, the 5478 American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) was involved in multiple tasks including the development and assessment of trucking industry user requirements.  It was also the project lead for development of the business case for truck platooning.

Some of the Phase 1 results identified include: Up to 10 percent fuel economy for the trailing truck, and up to 5 percent fuel economy for the leading truck; Truckload and line-haul LTL operations would likely be the greatest beneficiaries of a platooning system, particularly among larger fleets; Fleets and drivers who operate average truck trips of more than 500 miles would experience the highest returns on investment from platooning.

Modellers at Auburn University confirmed that platooning would not negatively impact traffic flows, and could improve traffic flows if truck market penetration reached 60 per cent;

The research also found that platoon formation in some operations appears to be feasible, based on a case study using actual truck movement data from ATRI's truck GPS database; and small fleets and owner-operators required an investment payback period of 10 months, while larger fleets had a mean payback expectation of 18 months.

In Phase 2 of the DATP project, the research team will be conducting both test-track and on-road pilot testing of the system.  In addition, the team will monitor and assess a variety of human factors considerations including driver satisfaction, driver training requirements and driver operational experiences.  The business case analysis will be extended based on these results.

The DATP research team is led by Auburn University and includes ATRI, Bishop Consulting, Peloton Technology, Peterbilt Trucks, and Meritor Wabco.

Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Fleet managers ‘likely to opt for brands that offer predictive technologies’
    December 18, 2013
    Fleet management systems (FMS) have an established presence in France, Germany, UK, Italy and Benelux, with 70 per cent of fleet managers claiming familiarity with FMS – 37 per cent are already using it and 33 per cent are testing it. In general, fleet owners display a positive attitude toward FMS, and 35 percent of respondents in a recent Frost & Sullivan survey consider it an absolute necessity. Large fleets are keener to adopt these solutions than small and medium fleets, clearly indicating a lack of awa
    Read More
  • User based insurance is helping good drivers and identifying the bad ones
    November 28, 2013
    Thomas Hallauer gives an overview of Usage Based Insurance (UBI), an industry that is putting telematic devices into more vehicles than fleet management ever did. The insurance market is going through a transformation phase never seen before. Insurers have not only started to track individual cars for Usage Based Insurance (UBI), they are also using the technology to enhance consumer services as more drivers join up to these schemes. Progressive Insurance in the US has 1.4 million customers signed up to
    Read More
  • Speeding the recovery of stranded commercial vehicles is paying dividends in Georgia
    April 9, 2014
    Delcan’s Cheryl-Marie Hansberger details how Georgia’s Towing and Recovery Incentive Program (TRIP) has improved road safety and helped to reduce traffic congestion in the metro Atlanta region. By 2008, steady increases in population had led the Texas Transportation Institute to declare Atlanta, Georgia to be the third most congested city in the US. In an effort to increase road user safety and mitigate the effects of traffic, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) and its local partners have imple
    Read More
  • US enforcement regulation to deliver clearer guidelines?
    February 2, 2012
    Jim Tuton of American Traffic Solutions looks at the evolution of automated enforcement in North America "Technological regulation will become more sophisticated at the federal level, giving states clearer guidelines" Jim Tuton In just 20 years, photo enforcement in North America has grown from a single speed camera in a small town in Arizona to thousands of photo traffic enforcement cameras which are now operating in 350 communities spread across 27 states and three Canadian provinces. Most of these p
    Read More

Highlighted Content