Early lessons learnt from Connecting Austria – C-ITS-focused level 1 truck platooning

Enhancing the efficiency of freight transport is one key question of logistics companies and has been a rather challenging task due to steadily increasing volumes of goods based on e-commerce and e.g. Amazon’s same-day delivery services . One approach for setting-up a smart and sustainable logistics system is using some form of truck platooning combined with C-ITS solutions. The Austrian road operator ASFINAG proactively sets the scene for using truck platooning for optimising their road network. After setting the scene in 2018, the flagship project on energy-efficient cooperative truck platooning Connecting Austria starts testing in 2019. One challenge is testing in mixed-traffic on public roads in Europe. How to cope with legislation and not to lose competitive ground against US or Dubai? This paper outlines first Connecting Austria results to prepare the ground for next steps in deployment of C-ITS-focused truck platooning services in Austria.