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Trucking is a critical segment of the economy, supporting the supply chains of many other sectors, moving goods that account for about half of U.S. gross domestic product. However, it remains the least automated, least safe, most labor-intensive, most polluting of all transport modes. Automation, electrification, and interconnected operation of trucks could help resolve driver shortage, supply-chain disruption, delivery service delays, emissions, and road safety issues. This paper reports on the development of a plan to bring together the knowledge and business ecosystems related to trucking technologies into an industry-university consortium, while providing students at three universities with learning through interdisciplinary research. The consortium’s vision is to converge and apply knowledge in emerging technologies in connected, electrified, and automated freight trucking and public transport networks to advance agile logistics and mobility for all. With an impending award from the National Science Foundation for administrative costs, the consortium will bring together diverse private and public sector stakeholders to conduct research on commercial vehicles, freight supply chain networks, and pertinent information systems to accelerate the adoption of automated and electrified systems to transport people and goods efficiently and flexibly. It is particularly focused on attracting diverse students to be trained in trucking technologies, and on focusing research on societal and economic challenges related to trucking. 

Truck platooning and related autonomous vehicle coordination concepts have been proposed as sustainable ways to increase profits and improve service quality. Recently the concept of truck caravanning, a hybrid truck platooning with only one truck driver required per platoon, has been proposed in the literature. This paper describes the research effort in developing a model that can estimate the cost savings of truck caravanning. The motivation of the proposed model is to investigate if substantial monetary savings exist to justify the initial capital investment (both in equipment and infrastructure) required for the implementation of the truck caravanning concept. A linear programming model is developed and used to evaluate different size networks. Results from numerical experiments indicate that a caravan size of four trucks or greater is needed for significant cost savings to be achieved and that driver compensation is the most critical factor dictating profitability.