Climate Implications of Truck Platooning Adoption: Insights from System Dynamics Modeling

Freight transportation is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the US. As an emerging technology, truck platooning leverages vehicle-to-vehicle communications to enable trucks to travel in convoys with close proximity, which reduces air drag and consequently truck fuel use and GHG emissions. However, uncertainties remain about how this emerging technology may be adopted and its climate impacts. To this end, this paper investigates the role of truck platooning adoption in mitigating the climate impact of trucking from a system perspective. Considering the dynamic nature of truck platooning adoption, system dynamics (SD) models based on stock and flow diagrams are developed to estimate the potential reduction in fuel use and CO2 emissions in the US trucking sector when truck platooning technology becomes available. The results show that adopting platooning could save 292 million metric tons of CO2 emissions in 180 months after the initial introduction of the technology in the US truck sector. The analysis provides insights for accelerating truck platooning adoption while enhancing its environmental impact.