Developing planning and collaboration models for the efficient integration of truck platoons in forestry transportation

Abstract

Truck platooning consists in forming a convoy of two or more trucks traveling close to one another, synchronized in their movements using automated driving technology and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication. The following trucks can automatically adjust steering, speed, and braking based on the actions of the lead truck. This leads to reduced fuel consumption and depending on the automation level to less truck drivers. This doctoral thesis investigates the potential of truck platooning technology in improving the efficiency and sustainability of product transportation in particular in forestry. It is divided into three phases. The first phase presents a systematic literature review on truck platooning transportation planning. This review explores the models used in the literature for different planning levels (notably in collaboration contexts), the benefits of truck platooning transportation planning alongside the challenges it faces. According to the review, more than 80% of the papers were published between 2019 and 2023. The study highlights the lack of strategic-tactical planning and collaboration models focused on the forestry industry, as well as models that address the integration of truck platoons at long-term and mid-term planning levels. The second phase focuses on developing a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model for evaluating the efficiency of truck platooning in upstream forest supply chains. It explores the gradual integration of truck platooning into the transportation network. Moreover, this phase analyzes truck platooning benefits (cost savings, fuel consumption, and labor), as well as the factors that influence its efficiency. This phase demonstrates potential cost savings between 3% to more than 20% and fuel consumption reductions of 1-16%, and reductions in the number of drivers between 3% to more than 50% depending on the scenario notably level of platooning integration to the transportation network. The key factors influencing platooning efficiency are average transportation distances, backhauling opportunities, and access levels of truck platoons to forest areas. The last phase focuses on collaboration between carrier companies using truck platooning. The results indicate that collaboration using truck platooning can yield additional cost savings of 1-19%. This phase analyzes different collaboration scenarios. Moreover, it investigates cost-sharing between the companies in the collaboration. It provides an MILP transportation planning model and uses Game Theory based models for cost sharing. Phases 2 and 3 present applications to case studies inspired from upstream forest transportation networks in the province of Quebec, Canada. This doctoral project presents decision-making models that consider the characteristics (benefits and constraints) of truck platooning that can be implemented in the real-world to reduce transportation costs, fuel consumption, and the number of drivers required (in a labour shortage context). This contributes to more sustainable forest transportation.

Date	11 Nov 2024
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Tasseda Boukherroub (Supervisor) & Mikael Rönnqvist (Co-supervisor)