FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Industry Report: Platooning Systems Such as From Peloton Offer Significant Fuel Efficiency & Safety Gains

North American Council on Freight Efficiency and Carbon War Room release confidence report on benefits of truck platooning

Mountain View, Calif. (October 4, 2016) – The North American Council on Freight Efficiency (NACFE) and Carbon War Room released a new report last week assessing the benefits and challenges of two-truck platooning. This is the latest in a series of confidence reports aimed to help truck fleets, manufacturers, and other end-users determine whether to adopt specific fuel efficiency technologies. The report concludes that emerging truck platooning systems can provide fleets with significant fuel savings and associated greenhouse gas and criteria pollutant reductions while providing clear financial incentives to adopt the latest active safety and collision mitigation systems.

NACFE’s two-truck platooning confidence report is the first to tackle a technology that is not yet commercially available, with two-truck platooning systems slated for commercial release in 2017. By conducting interviews with a wide range of fleets, OEMs, and technology experts and consulting a growing body of data from modeled, track, and on-road truck platoon testing, the report concludes fleets can expect an average of 7% fuel savings per truck while in an aerodynamic two-truck platoon, with an average overall savings of 4% per truck in “real world” conditions when factoring in traffic, terrain, and time when the trucks are not in platoon. Fleets with higher percentages of on-highway mileage can see even greater average savings per truck. Independent testing done separately by NACFE, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Department of Transportation have shown fuel efficiency benefits in this 7% average range across two-trucks. Using the industry standard SAE Type II fuel economy measurement methods, NACFE’s analysis showed 10% for the rear truck and 4.5% for the lead truck with platooning operations at a 40 foot gap and 65mph.

“Some fleets and others in the industry today may be getting distracted by stories about highly automated trucks, and what that may mean for the industry,” noted NACFE Executive Director Mike Roeth. “Driver-assistive platooning is often mistakenly lumped in with talk about higher automation. In our Two-Truck Platooning Confidence Report, we wanted to make sure fleets don’t make a mistake by overlooking the real significant efficiency and safety benefits that driver-assistive two-truck platooning can provide to fleets and drivers in the near-term.  Platooning systems can also include higher automation in the future, but fleets should not wait to consider the benefits of the driver-assistive platooning systems coming to market in 2017. ”

“We are very pleased that NACFE’s report reflects how we view platooning – as an extremely important tool for fleets to improve safety and fuel efficiency that will be widely available very soon,” noted Josh Switkes, Founder & CEO of platooning system developer Peloton Technology. “We think that while the NACFE report addresses fleets generally, many fleets will see even greater real world fuel savings by optimizing routes to take advantage of platooning opportunities.”

With the Peloton system commercially available next year, the NACFE report is optimistic about the viability of platooning to provide fleets concrete fuel savings and clear financial incentives to deploy advanced safety systems. The report explores both benefits and challenges for the technology, which is expected to be deployed initially within larger fleets with multiple trucks running on the same dedicated routes, which will provide easy solutions for dispatching trucks together and sharing disparate fuel savings across two trucks. The Peloton system also enables platooning between fleets, through the Platooning Network Operations Center.  The report relies on a number of studies from the European Commission, National Renewable Energy Lab, Daimler, Scania, Peloton and others spanning over 15 years to determine the certainty of fuel savings benefits.

“The partnership of NACFE and the Carbon War Room has developed into a tremendous resource for the trucking industry,” says Steve Boyd, Cofounder and Vice President of External Affairs at Peloton Technology. “Their focus on cutting through the hype to bring fleets and OEMs the facts leads to better decisions and faster adoption of efficiency technology across the industry. We wholeheartedly agree with their assessment that truck platooning is a real, viable solution to save fleets money and improve safety.”

NACFE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to doubling the freight efficiency of North American goods movement. NACFE partnered with Carbon War Room, a nonprofit founded by Sir Richard Branson to accelerate the adoption of business solutions to reduce carbon emissions and advanced the low-carbon economy, to launch TruckingEfficiency.org in 2014. Together, this effort has provided fleets with a wealth of independent, unbiased information to assess freight efficiency technologies. The Confidence Report on Two-Truck Platooning can be found here.

Mountain View, California-based Peloton Technology’s Truck Platooning system promises to provide the significant safety, fuel efficiency and emissions benefits to the global freight trucking industry that are highlighted in the NACFE report. Peloton’s system is based on proven automated braking and stability control systems, active safety systems, sensors, and advanced vehicle communications that allow two trucks to operate at following distances of 40-80 feet to save fuel and reduce emissions.  Peloton’s two-truck platooning system is a Level 1 vehicle automation system according to industry-standard guidelines of SAE International. Both drivers retain full steering control when in platoon, while acceleration and braking of the rear truck are automated to match the front truck via a secure and encrypted vehicle-to-vehicle wireless link. Engineered in collaboration with Peloton’s professional driving team, the Peloton system connects each platoon-enabled truck to a cloud-based “Network Operations Center,” which further enhances safety by limiting platooning to appropriate roads and conditions and alerting drivers to upcoming hazards, whether in or out of platoon. Peloton’s platooning system will roll out to major U.S. trucking fleets in 2017.

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Peloton Technology is a Silicon Valley-based vehicle automation and connectivity company that is bringing new levels of safety, efficiency and analytics to the $700 billion U.S. trucking industry and other automotive markets.  Peloton is backed by eight Fortune Global 500 companies across the transportation and technology industries including: Volvo Group, DENSO International America, UPS, Nokia Growth Partners, Intel Capital, Magna, Lockheed Martin, Castrol InnoVentures, Lytx, Sand Hill Angels, Birchmere Ventures and Band of Angels. Visit www.peloton-tech.com, follow us on twitter @pelotontech, or email press@peloton-tech.com.