Skip to main content

Report: Managing the transition to driverless road freight transport

The International Transport Forum, in partnership with the International Road Transport Union (IRU), the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) is working on a project which examines the impact of driverless trucks. It focuses on developments in Europe and North America, with some evidence drawn from other continents, such as automated trains and mining equipment in Australia. The aim is to consider whether driverless road freight trans
May 16, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
The 998 International Transport Forum, in partnership with the International Road Transport Union (IRU), the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (6175 ACEA) is working on a project which examines the impact of driverless trucks. It focuses on developments in Europe and North America, with some evidence drawn from other continents, such as automated trains and mining equipment in Australia.


The aim is to consider whether driverless road freight transport might be developed, allowed and adopted over the next two decades. There would be powerful motivations for introducing driverless trucks on a large scale, such as cost or safety.

The project seeks to develop evidence-based scenarios of how a transition to self-driving trucks could unfold and to also offer a plan to manage the disruptions to the livelihoods of affected drivers.

The final report will be published on 31 May 2017 during the International Transport Forum’s 2017 Summit of transport ministers in Leipzig, Germany.

It suggests scenarios for how the transition could happen; examines potential applications for driverless trucks; contains numbers on potential job losses; looks at the development of alternative adoption scenarios, and makes recommendations to governments how to prepare.

Related Content

  • August 21, 2014
    Ken Leonard talks to ITS International
    Ken Leonard, director of the USDOT’s ITS Joint Program office made time in his schedule during the Helsinki Congress to speak to ITS International. It has been 18 months since Ken Leonard took over as the director of the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office at the US Department of Transportation. With 30 years of technical experience behind him, to say he is enjoying the challenge would be to put it mildly: “It is incredibly exciting to be working in intelligent transportation systems, th
  • May 1, 2024
    The path to safer roads: America can learn from Europe’s example, says Verra Mobility
    Many US states are establishing road safety programmes that will inspire others. TJ Tiedje, vice president commercial at Verra Mobility, explains why this is important
  • May 19, 2017
    European truck industry gears up for platooning by 2023
    Europe’s truck manufacturers have revealed a detailed timeline of steps leading up to the introduction of convoys of semi-automated trucks on Europe’s motorways before 2025, with the publication of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) report EU Roadmap for Truck Platooning. This also provides guidance to policy makers and authorities on the regulatory changes and political support necessary for cross-border truck platooning. Truck platooning is the linking of two or more trucks in convo
  • March 24, 2015
    Taking the long view of ITS
    Caroline Visser believes the ITS industry must present a coherent case for consideration of the technology to become part of transport policy and planning. As ITS advisor and road finance director for the International Road Federation (IRF) in Geneva, Caroline Visser is well placed to evaluate quantifying the benefits of ITS implementation – a topic about which there is little agreement and even less consistency. She is pressing to get some consistency in the evaluation of ITS deployments through the use of