The Freight Transport Association has today released news of a new way to save costs, congestion and carbon while carrying out transport solutions and services. Truck Platooning is where a member driver can operate more than one vehicle at the same time while travelling along the British road network. At the moment it is thought that there are 200,000 trucks on Britain’s roads, by linking a series of trucks while travelling along the motorway it is believed that larger volumes of goods can be moved in one operation.

The announcement has been made today by the FTA of an £8.1 million investment that will be put in to trailing this platoon method of transport and exploring whether such an advanced system is safe to use and as beneficial as expected. Platooning is expected to use the latest driving systems in order to move large quantities of cargo at more consistent speeds, thereby lowering fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

The first announcement of the platooning trial was made in November 2016, and now the FTA have said that it is imperative that they government move forward with their plans more quickly in order to allow the logistics sector more chance to plan efficiently for the future. Platooning could save fuel costs and reduce air pollution, with a convoy of truck all driving very close together, the truck will take up less space overall on the roads and would improve traffic flow when the vehicles are driven at constant speeds.

There are concerns about this method of transportation, with the vehicles still taking up as much space as half a football field in one long convoy. It is clear that the trails into platooning are safe, effective and as sustainable as claimed in order to work out whether they are a viable transport and logistics method.