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.

Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • July 16, 2012
    Semi-autonomous hybrid vehicle trials show fuel, emission savings
    The Transport Research Laboratory has unveiled an innovative semi-autonomous vehicle prototype. It offers improves in environmental performance and safety but also displays some shortcomings. Mike Woof reports. The UK's Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has been working on an innovative project to develop a prototype vehicle intended to reduce fuel consumption. Based on a Ford Escape hybrid model, TRL's Sentience vehicle uses a combination of mobile communications and mapping technologies to reduce fuel c
    Read More
  • March 31, 2017
    Report predicts how future mobility solutions will affect automotive OEMs
    Global management consultancy, Arthur D. Little (ADL) has released a new study, The Future of Automotive Mobility, based on a global survey of 6,500 participants, including customers, industry players and regulators. The report examines how the megatrends of electric mobility, car sharing and autonomous driving are likely to impact on the global automotive ecosystem and future OEM sales. The report notes that the future of mobility will no longer depend primarily on the preferences of customers, but wil
    Read More
  • November 27, 2012
    LGA report forecasts introduction of road tolling
    A report by the Local Government Association (LGA), the organisation representing councils in England and Wales, predicts road tolling or pay as you drive road pricing could be introduced by 2018. With traffic predicted to nearly double over the next 25 years, the LGA believes the Government will have to consider tolls or even pay as you drive road pricing to raise the money it needs.
    Read More
  • May 1, 2015
    Self-driving shared vehicles ‘could take most cars off city streets’
    Fleets of TaxiBots and AutoVots could deliver today’s mobility with significantly fewer cars, says a new study. Self-driving shared cars could make 90 per cent of conventional cars in mid-sized cities superfluous, according to the study published by the International Transport Forum at the OECD. Even during peak hours, only one third of the current number of cars would be needed to provide the same number of trips as today. ITF researchers used actual transport data from Lisbon, Portugal, to model the
    Read More

Highlighted Content