Japan plans an automated freight transportation system to ease shortages

Japan plans to build an automated freight corridor between Tokyo and Osaka, which the government has dubbed the “Conveyor Belt Road,” to make up for the shortage of truck drivers.

The funding amount for the project has not yet been determined. But it is seen as one of the key ways to help the country cope with rising delivery rates.

A Computer graphics video Images prepared by the government show large wheeled boxes moving along a three-lane corridor, also called an “auto-flow road,” in the middle of a large highway. The pilot system is scheduled to begin trial operation in 2027 or early 2028, with a goal of full operation by the mid-2030s.

“We need to be innovative in the way we approach roads,” said Yuri Endo, senior deputy director overseeing the effort at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Aside from compensating for the shrinking workforce and the need to reduce drivers’ workloads, the system will also help cut carbon emissions, she said.

“The main concept of the auto-flow route is to create dedicated spaces within the road network for logistics, using a 24-hour automated and unmanned transportation system,” Endo said.

The plan may seem like a solution that would only work in societies with relatively low population densities and crime rates like Japan, and not in sprawling countries like the United States. But similar ideas are being studied in Switzerland and Great Britain. The plan in Switzerland includes an underground track, while the track planned in London will be a fully automated system powered by low-cost linear motors.

In Japan, loading will be automated using forklifts, and coordination with airports, railways and ports.

The boxes are 180 cm high, or nearly six feet, 110 cm, or 3.6 feet, wide and 110 cm long, about the size of a large closet.

The system, which is also intended for business delivery, may be expanded to include other methods if all goes well. Human drivers may still have to deliver last-mile orders to people’s doors, although driverless technology could be used in the future.

Japan’s truck driver shortage is exacerbated by laws that took effect earlier this year that limit the number of overtime hours truck drivers can log. This is seen as necessary to avoid burnout and accidents and to make jobs tolerable, but in Japanese logistics, government and transportation circles, it is known as the “2024 problem.”

Under current conditions, Japan’s total transportation capacity will decline by 34% by 2030, according to government estimates. Domestic transportation capacity is about 4.3 billion metric tons, almost all of it, or more than 91%, by truck, according to the Japan Trucking Association.

This is a small part of what is moving in a huge country like the United States. About 5.2 trillion ton-miles of freight are moved in the United States each year, and that is expected to reach more than 8 trillion ton-miles of freight by 2050. A mile measures the amount of goods shipped and how far they are moved, with the standard unit being one ton moved a distance One mile.

Demand for online shopping delivery services has soared during the pandemic, with users jumping from about 40% of Japanese households to more than 60%, according to government data, even as the overall population continues to decline as the birth rate declines.

As is the case in most places, truck drivers perform strenuous work that requires them to be on the road for days at a time, work that most job seekers find unattractive.

In recent years, annual deaths caused by road delivery truck collisions have reached about 1,000. That number has improved from the nearly 2,000 deaths in 2010, but the Trucking Association, which includes about 400 of the nation’s trucking companies and organizations, wants to make deliveries safer.

The association is also urging consumers to hold back on delivery orders or at least consolidate their orders. Some industry experts are urging companies to limit free delivery offers.

Trucks carry about 90% of Japan’s goods, and about 60% of Japan’s fresh produce, such as fruits and vegetables, come from far away places requiring trucking, according to Yuji Yano, a professor at Ryotsu Keizai University, which is funded? Through the delivery giant Nippon Express Co., now called NX Holdings, it focuses on economics and liberal arts studies, including trucking problems.

“This means that the problem of 2024 is not just a transportation problem but is actually a people problem,” Yano said.

© 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.