Mihalis Golias, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering
University of Memphis
mgkolias@memphis.edu

Sabyasachee Mishra, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering
University of Memphis
smishra3@memphis.edu

John Hourdos, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering
University of Minnesota
hourd001@umn.edu

Proposal Summary and Objectives

Truck caravanning is defined as a hybrid platooning with only one truck driver per platoon, the leader. Truck caravanning, capitalizing on the availability of SAS Level 5 automated trucks, has the potential to extend the profit and service quality for freight business beyond and in addition to benefits achieved by truck platooning. To date, extremely limited number of research efforts have reported/explored the truck caravanning potential for monetary savings from the use of smaller number of truck drivers. Research in Truck platooning operational models in general, have solely focused on savings from fuel consumption and emissions reduction, which numbers found in the literature vary greatly and are questioned among researchers. The goal of this research is not to evaluate the technical feasibility of truck caravanning, but rather to develop and use mathematical models and sensitivity analysis to evaluate and estimate cost savings from freight operations employing truck caravanning. In this project, and unlike research published for truck platooning or caravanning to date, cost savings are easily verifiable as only driver compensation is considered. Any cost savings from fuel and/or emissions reduction are considered only at the general implementation level of the proposed operational model for completeness as well as to allow comparison of the different elements involved in the overall cost/benefit calculation.

Funding Amount:
Status: Active
Duration: June 1, 2021 – May 31, 2022