Costs and capabilities of innovative concepts of long and heavy vehicles in Germany

Abstract

Within the innovative concept of truck platooning vehicles are coupled digitally to vehicle combinations. This can contribute to increase productivity in the road haulage industry. Quite a few field trials have been conducted. Within the European modular concept vehicles are coupled physically to modular vehicle combinations with increased dimensions. This can also contribute to increase productivity in the road haulage industry. It is introduced in Sweden and Finland, field trials have been conducted in Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany.The purpose of the paper is to compare structural differences of cost cuttings of truck platooning and modular vehicle combinations if they were introduced in Germany. The comparison is based on several basic models, a highly automated truck platoon, a fully automated truck platoon, the Lang-Lkw in Germany with a maximum allowed mass (MAM) of 40 t, and the initial Swedish modular vehicle combination with a MAM of 60 t. Major criteria are the cost cuttings per tonne kilometre related to the productivity of the drivers, the fuel consumption, and the necessary technical equipment.There seem to be cost advantages of the European modular concept. Though, the concept is limited to a dedicated road network. Advantages of truck platooning seem to be linked to their flexible formation but limited due to the necessity of decoupling due to the design of the infrastructure and in heavy traffic.