Japan plans to create an automated freight transport system to ease driver shortages and cut emissions

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Japan plans to build an automated freight transport corridor between Tokyo and Osaka, dubbed the “conveyor road” by the government, to help fill a shortage of truck drivers.

The amount of funding for the project has not yet been determined. But it is seen as one of the key ways to help the country cope with rising supplies.

The government’s CGI video shows large boxes on wheels driving along a three-lane corridor, also called a “highway,” in the middle of a major highway. The trial system should begin test runs in 2027 or early 2028, with full operation planned by the mid-2030s.

“We need to be innovative in our approach to roads,” said Yuri Endo, the senior deputy director overseeing the work at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

In addition to offsetting the reduction in workforce and the need to reduce the workload of drivers, the system will also help reduce carbon emissions, she said.

“The key concept of the highway is to create dedicated spaces in the road network for logistics using a 24/7 automated and driverless transport system,” Endo said.

This plan may sound like a solution that would only work in densely populated societies with relatively low crime rates, such as Japan, and not in vast countries like the United States. But similar ideas are being considered in Switzerland and the UK. The Swiss plan would be an underground track, while the London plan would be a fully automated system powered by low-cost linear motors.

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

The boxes are 180 centimeters high, or nearly six feet, and 110 centimeters, or 3.6 feet, wide and 110 centimeters long, the size of a large cabinet.

The system, which is also designed for business deliveries, could be expanded to other routes if all goes well. Human drivers may still have 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 went into effect earlier this year limiting the number of drivers who can work overtime. This is considered necessary to avoid overwork and accidents and to make jobs livable, but in Japanese logistics, government and transportation circles it is known as the “2024 problem.”

Under current conditions, the government estimates that Japan’s overall transport capacity will decline by 34% by 2030. Domestic transport capacity is about 4.3 billion tons, with almost all, or more than 91%, in trucks, according to the Japan Freight Transport Association.

This is a small part of what is happening in such a huge country as the USA. About 5.2 trillion ton-miles of cargo are transported in the United States each year, and that figure is projected to reach more than 8 trillion ton-miles of cargo by 2050. a mile measures the amount of cargo shipped and the distance it moves, with the standard unit of measurement being one ton moved per mile.

Demand for delivery from online retailers has surged during the pandemic, with the share 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 falls.

Like most places, truck drivers have a demanding job that requires them to spend days on the road, a job that most job seekers find unattractive.

In recent years, the annual death toll from delivery truck crashes has hovered around 1,000. That’s an improvement on nearly 2,000 deaths in 2010, but the Trucking Association, which represents about 400 trucking businesses and organizations nationwide, wants to make deliveries even safer.

The association also urges consumers to refrain from ordering delivery or at least combine their orders. Some industry experts are urging businesses to limit free shipping offers.

Trucks carry about 90% of Japan’s cargo, and about 60% of Japan’s fresh produce, such as fruits and vegetables, comes from remote locations that require road transport, according to Yuji Yano, a professor at Ryutsu Keizai University, which is funded by ? delivery giant Nippon Express Co., now called NX Holdings, conducts research in economics and the humanities, including freight transportation.

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

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Yuri Kageyama on X: