Truck platooning: Towards future business models

Abstract

Automated driving trucks promise significant improvements with regards to traffic, logistic costs and emissions. Platooning can be seen as the next technological step in this direction. While the body of literature reflects the engineering perspective of platooning extensively, an Information Systems discussions about user-centered business models are rare. Our paper aims to strengthen the Information Systems perspective on platooning and its inherent business models. Up to the current state of our project, we found that intra-fleet platooning can be understood as an amortization issue, while inter-fleet platooning requires complex matching algorithms, motivational incentives for drivers and fleets and easy plus fast payment solutions. We built a Monte Carlo simulation for an inter-fleet platooning app and present preliminary results. © 2018 Universitatsverlag Gottingen. All rights reserved.