Japan plans an automated freight transportation system to alleviate driver shortages and reduce emissions

TOKYO (AP) — Japan plans to build an automated freight corridor between Tokyo and Osaka, dubbed an “assembly line road” by the government, to address a shortage of truck drivers.

The amount of funding for the project has not yet been determined. But it is seen as an important way to help the country cope with rising deliveries.

A computer graphics video Made by the Government shows large boxes on wheels moving along a three-lane corridor, known as an “autoflow road,” in the middle of a major highway. A pilot system is expected to begin test runs in 2027 or early 2028, with the aim of being fully operational by mid-2030.

“We need to be innovative with the way we approach roads,” said Yuri Endo, a senior deputy director overseeing efforts at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Except compensating a shrinking working population and the need to reduce the workload for drivers will also help reduce the system carbon emissionsshe said.

“The key concept of the autoflow road is to create dedicated spaces within the road network for logistics, using a 24-hour automated and unmanned transportation system,” Endo said.

The plan may sound like a solution that would only work in densely populated societies with relatively low crime, like Japan, and not in vast countries like the US. But similar ideas are being considered in Switzerland and Britain. The plan in Switzerland involves an underground route, while the plan in London will be a fully automated system running on cheap linear motors.

In Japan, loading will be automated using forklifts and coordinated with airports, railways and ports.

The boxes are 180 centimeters high, or almost 6 feet, and 110 centimeters, or 3.6 feet, by 110 centimeters wide and long, about the size of a large closet.

The system, which is also intended for business deliveries, could potentially be expanded to other routes if all goes well. Human drivers may still need to make last-mile deliveries to people’s doors, although driverless technology may be used in the future.

Japan’s truck driver shortage is worsening due to laws that came into effect earlier this year limiting the amount of overtime drivers can log. This is seen as necessary to prevent overwork and accidents and to make jobs bearable, but in Japanese logistics, government and transportation circles it is known as the “2024 problem.”

Under current conditions, Japan’s total transportation capacity will fall by 34% by 2030, according to government estimates. According to the Japan Trucking Association, domestic transportation capacity is about 4.3 billion tons, almost entirely or more than 91% with trucks.

That’s a fraction of what moves in a huge country like the US. Approximately 5.2 trillion tonne-miles of freight are transported in the United States each year, and this is expected to reach more than 8 trillion tonne-miles of freight by 2050. mile measures the amount of freight shipped and how far it is moved, with the standard unit being one ton moved one mile.

Demand for online shopping deliveries has soared during the pandemic, with the number of users rising from about 40% of Japanese households to more than 60%, according to government data, even as the overall population continues to decline as the birth rate drops.

Like most places, truck drivers have tough jobs that require them to be on the road for days at a time, work that most job seekers find unappealing.

In recent years, the annual number of fatalities caused by vans crashing on the road has hovered around 1,000. That’s an improvement from the nearly 2,000 deaths in 2010, but the Trucking Association, which groups about 400 trucking companies and organizations in the country, wants to make deliveries even safer.

The association also calls on consumers to abandon delivery orders or at least bundle their orders. Some industry experts are urging companies to limit free delivery offers.

Trucks transport about 90% of Japan’s freight, and about 60% of Japan’s fresh produce, such as fruits and vegetables, come from far-flung places that require freight transportation, according to Yuji Yano, a professor at Ryutsu Keizai University, who is funded ? by delivery giant Nippon Express Co., now called NX Holdings, and focuses on economics and liberal arts studies, including trucking issues.

“That means that the problem of 2024 is not just a transportation problem, but really a people’s problem,” Yano said.

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Yuri Kageyama is at X: