HEARTLAND FREIGHT TECHNOLOGY PLAN
Freight Technology Assessment and Harmonization Technical Memorandum
FINAL October 1, 2020
Prepared by
TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 5 INTRODUCTION ...... 10 PROJECT BACKGROUND ...... 10 SCOPE AND PURPOSE ...... 10 FREIGHT TECHNOLOGY MONITORING ...... 12 FREIGHT TECHNOLOGIES WATCH LIST ...... 14 Freight Technology Categories ...... 14 Automated ...... 15 Big Data ...... 15 Data, Information and Communication ...... 15 Digital Supply Chain ...... 16 Energy ...... 16 Enforcement and Inspection ...... 17 Intermodalism ...... 17 Safety ...... 18 ASSESS TECHNOLOGY TIMEFRAME/MATURITY ...... 18 Key Stakeholder Engagement ...... 21 Economic Implications for Technology Investment – Task 2 Findings Revisited ...... 22 ASSESS TECHNOLOGY BENEFITS ...... 24 Identifying Technologies with Public Benefit ...... 25 Benefits Assessment ...... 26 Further Discussion of Freight Technology Characteristics ...... 28 MAINTAIN FREIGHT TECHNOLOGY WATCH LIST ...... 35 REPEAT CADENCE-DRIVEN ASSESSMENT PROCESS ...... 37 HARMONIZATION ...... 38 HARMONIZATION AND COORDINATION ...... 38 Harmonizing Policy and Practice ...... 39 Coordinating Technology – Regional ...... 40 Coordinating Technology – Long Distance ...... 42 SWOT ANALYSIS ...... 44
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STRENGTHS ...... 44 WEAKNESSES ...... 46 OPPORTUNITIES ...... 48 THREATS ...... 49 FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 51 RECOMMENDATION: ORGANIZE FOR SUCCESS ...... 51 RECOMMENDATION: STRATEGIC ACTION ...... 56 RECOMMENDATION: ADVANCED DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS PROGRAM SUPPORT 57 RECOMMENDATION: ELECTRIFICATION PROGRAM SUPPORT ...... 59 APPENDICES ...... 63 APPENDIX A – EMERGING TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY ...... 63 APPENDIX B – TECHNOLOGY MATURITY ASSESSMENT ...... 69 APPENDIX C – EMERGING TECHNOLOGY SURVEY SUMMARY ...... 72
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report presents findings on the assessment, management, and regional harmonization of emerging freight technology and concludes Task 3 in the development of the Heartland Freight Technology Plan (HFTP). The Heartland Region consists of the states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and the counties of Illinois near St. Louis. The findings herein reflect interviews and a survey of stakeholders, secondary research, and a two-day virtual workshop conducted with over 50 regional stakeholders in May 2020. The report includes a review of the relevant technologies, evaluation of their maturity and benefits, and ways to keep the evaluation up to date. It describes current practice and challenges in coordination of technology plans and policies among public agencies in the Heartland, and analyzes regional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in this regard. It concludes with recommendations for how Heartland agencies can organize to attain benefits and reduce deficiencies and presents two options for technology programs. The programs combine action in urban and rural areas, address strategic needs and support service in the Heartland’s principal markets, incorporate constituent appeal, and pursue material benefits from consequential technology in the near and medium term.
The final recommendations fall under three main categories: regional organization, and the support of both Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) programs and electrification programs. Highlights of these recommendations, detailed later in the report, are as follows:
Regional Organization Organization of a regional approach to technology is warranted, beneficial, and best done in cooperation with the private sector. Seven considerations guide this approach: • Practical Scale: the region should walk before it runs, reflecting its resources, its level of collaborative experience across sectors, and need for focused action. • Scalability: technology will continue to evolve; organizational capabilities and procedures must grow with it. • Form: establish a core team with responsibility for strategy and programs, supported by working groups drawn from member agencies responsible for implementation. The team initially will be the consortium itself but may come to reside with a multi- state organization. Use formal agreement to ensure that part-time personnel have clear direction on their commitments to the project. • Champion: options for identifying a program champion include assessment of consortium members themselves or of others within their agencies and seeking a private sector champion from among the region’s Freight Advisory Committees (FACs) to pair with the consortium chairperson.
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• Funding: funding for fixed costs should come from sources that can be committed for multiple years; federal state planning and research funds might be such a source. Variable costs could be applied for within existing agency programs (e.g., Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) for electrification) and through competitive grants. • Jump-Start: precedents make clear the value of an initial infusion of funds to jump- start the program. Economic stimulus funds could be a near-term source. • External Partners: advance external partnerships through engagement of Heartland FACs regionally, use of intermediaries to protect private data, and consideration of academic institutions as bridge organizations between the public and private sector
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems ADAS programs are in the early stage of adoption. Because they provide immediate benefits and are part of the suite of technologies that lead to automated vehicles, they are practical and forward-looking. They are a safety technology that reduces cost for motor carriers and addresses a chief concern of voters in a way they can understand. A strategic purpose of the program is involvement of rural areas in regional technology development.
Roadway crashes in rural districts have lower frequency but higher severity than in urban/semi-urban districts. Risk assessment is hobbled because comprehensive data about roadway conditions tends to be local and may be absent on a statewide basis. ADAS capture indicators of risk, such as hard braking and near-crash events, as well as operating factors like speed, lean and yaw. ADAS providers are a natural, neutral intermediary who can provide event data, but geographic coverage in rural areas is likely to be limited.
The Heartland should offer to promote ADAS in rural areas in return for free access to safety data. However, the great majority of truck lines are small fleets lacking the financial resources to acquire such systems. Public aid through a new financial assistance program can be offered and justified, because it puts safer trucks on the road, supplies public agencies with data for road safety improvements, and proactively mitigates risk from traffic growth attendant to economic development. Programs like FHWA’s Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) offer a wide variety of resources to help states plan and implement highway safety improvement projects using a performance- driven process. The recently released National Strategic Freight Plan highlights the need for more and better quality data, stating "Data limitations hinder the ability of public
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agencies to identify problems, prioritize, plan for, and program freight projects, and manage infrastructure that supports freight mobility.”1
Financing can be positioned as a small business initiative and modeled on clean truck programs that help small fleets afford newer trucks. Availability of grants to help generate seed capital should be explored and could be more successful in regionwide applications. Although carriers in urban areas should be eligible, publicity should be geared to rural territory.
Program team composition should involve working groups in such disciplines as finance, promotion, contracts, and technical partnerships. A key working group should be concerned with implementation of data-driven road safety investments, coordinated regionally by the state DOTs, who have existing safety agendas and can help access federal resources. Not all safety risks are associated with design factors; many are behavioral and require training, awareness, and adjustment to operating conditions. Data from ADAS can help target initiatives to address these types of concerns.
Electrification Program Electric trucks are in the field stage of development and should move into adoption within five years, but they are worthy of attention now as long-standing barriers to widespread adoption erode. According to a recent study by Adhikari et al., 2 the barriers to electric vehicle (EV) adoption can be categorized into five major groupings: technical, social, economic, infrastructure, and policy. Using an analysis framework and expert input, their research revealed that infrastructure, policy, economic, and technical barriers pose more pressing concerns than social barriers.
Economic barriers are declining and are projected to be comparable to internal combustion engines (ICE) by 2024. 3 Technical barriers are also being overcome with firms ranging from Tesla and Nikola to traditional firms like Volvo bringing EV technologies to market. Electric utilities, targeting new market opportunities, are leading efforts to develop needed charging infrastructure. In 2019, distillate fuel (essentially diesel fuel) consumption by the U.S. transportation sector was about 47.2 billion gallons.4 At an average of $2.50 per gallon, this is a 100-plus billion-dollar market
1 https://www.transportation.gov/freight/NFSP/fullreport 2 Adhikari, Madhusudhan; Ghimire, Laxman P.; Kim, Yeonbae; Aryal, Prakash; Khadka, Sundar B. 2020. "Identification and Analysis of Barriers against Electric Vehicle Use." Sustainability 12, no. 12: 4850. 3 https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2019-02/190225tco_0.pdf, p. 27 4 https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/diesel-fuel/use-of-diesel.php
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opportunity for electric power providers. Remaining policy barriers can be removed with proper planning and collaboration.
Electric trucks appeal to motor carriers because of driver preference and potentially lower cost. They are suited to drayage in rail-truck, barge-truck and air-truck operations, making them both an intermodal and an energy technology. The fast-charging infrastructure necessary to support them must be developed. Public support for such infrastructure is apt to be driven by demand for electric automobiles, which are on the road today and will grow in number. Planning for electrification should be initiated now, however, because preparation and installation of infrastructure will take several years to start and will require more time to expand. Finally, ineffective methods of revenue generation to support the transportation network is the Heartland’s number one weakness, according to stakeholders. EVs require a new pricing system to pay for roads; the electronic logging devices now required in trucks are a ready-made means of calculating road usage. Pricing schemes will be more effective and better accepted if they are regionwide, and upcoming reauthorization of the federal Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act may include pilot programs to develop them.
The major limitation of electric trucks is an operating range currently up to 300 miles. From Kansas City, MO, all seven of the other Heartland nodes can be reached with a single charge, but for most nodes only three or four others are in range. Congestion and slow speeds do not draw significant battery power (stop-and-go traffic actually increases the regeneration opportunity5), so congested roads do not reduce the possible driving distance. However, because there is no secondary fuel source on an EV truck, having charging stations available along the way will be important as a back-up for extreme situations (delay, weather, etc.).
The local and surrounding state markets are the top ones by tonnage for most Heartland nodes, which matches the EV range. The most typical operation would mix local with round-trip service to surrounding territory within 150 miles. The day cabs (tractors without sleeper berths) in widespread use among motor carriers are designed for this class of service, and the electric tractor-trailers coming on stream have them. The first heavy-duty electric tractors in widespread use will be day cab units in local operations. While these are chiefly for urban operations, they encompass intermodal transportation by rail, barge, and air, which is critical to serving the long distance domestic and global markets that are vital to the Heartland economy. Electric trucks thus have the potential to play a productive role in both major markets for Heartland
5 https://nacfe.org/wp- content/uploads/2020/06/EVS33_Mihelic_ID257_NACFE_NREL_PrePub_Download.pdf
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freight – local and long-distance – with the operating ranges that already are becoming available.
Organizing for electrification will entail establishing working groups with utilities, wind and solar producers, truck stops, and other developers interested in serving passenger as well as freight vehicles. Identification of EV corridors on a regional basis should be a working group task and would lay the groundwork if EV Corridor funding appears in FAST Act reauthorization. The Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Alternative Fuel Corridor program is establishing a national network of alternative fueling and charging infrastructure along national highway system corridors. Corridors are identified already in the Heartland Region, and private firms like Electrify America are building out charging infrastructure in these corridors:
An additional working group should explore pricing; another should track adoption of electric trucks by the motor carrier industry. Other possible tracking methods include asking state FAC member fleets to share their plans and progress and identifying electric trucks at weigh stations and during safety inspections.
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INTRODUCTION
PROJECT BACKGROUND The Heartland Region is a national hub for agriculture, manufacturing, and freight distribution that includes southwestern Illinois and the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. Changes in the freight industry are creating a paradigm shift in how all participants in goods movement (from supplier to end consumer) interface with transportation infrastructure. To address the need that this shift presents, the Heartland Region is developing a freight technology plan (Heartland Freight Technology Plan or HFTP) that will deliver: • A prioritization framework for new technologies; • Goals and strategies for harmonizing regulation; • Recommendations for data management and sharing; and • A blueprint for action and implementation.
The HFTP project is part of FHWA’s National Economic Partnership (NEP) grant program and is being developed through a partnership of six Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs); five state Departments of Transportation (DOTs); the Heartland Civic Collaborative; and other academic, business, and industry leaders. This NEP grant is one of only four awards in the program and the first of its kind to incentivize freight technology assessments and harmonization.
SCOPE AND PURPOSE This technical memo provides strategic recommendations on how the project area should approach and assess new freight technologies and their impacts on transportation agencies. The recommendations come from a thorough exploration of methods and opportunities for harmonization by examining best practices from recent technology deployment and building scalable, future-proof best practices for the Heartland Region based on shared lessons learned and first-hand insight from deployers and industry leaders.
The approach includes methods and best practices to: 1. Identify emerging freight technologies that are most likely for near to intermediate term implementation in the region. 2. Identify emerging freight technologies that are most beneficial for near to intermediate term implementation in the region. 3. Assess how public agencies currently coordinate technology integration practices and policies with industry advances in freight and supply chain technology.
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4. Identify and analyze opportunities to harmonize regional policies and practices related to freight technologies. a. First steps that provide public agencies methods to evaluate these technologies b. Policy implications about how transportation agencies do business c. Policy change to existing business practices d. Policy development implementation that supports regionalism e. Infrastructure needs beyond roads and bridges to explore the infrastructure needs of the future scenarios of tomorrow’s regional transportation system 5. Conduct a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis to assess current agency policies and practices in the region related to freight technology planning, including best practices to support regional technology deployment.
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FREIGHT TECHNOLOGY MONITORING
Understanding the emerging freight technologies and their impact on the Heartland Region is a key competency for public transportation planning agencies across the region. Public agencies need to stay abreast of the latest technological innovations if they are to keep pace with modern supply chain and freight movement needs. A Freight Technology Watch List methodology, designed to identify and capture information about emerging technologies and trends and to deliver it in a usable form to decision makers, is a best practice approach for building institutional knowledge on emerging and potentially disruptive technologies.
In a globalizing world economy, technological differences can explain differences in economic growth and inter-country income inequality. 6 Effectively backing sound technology investments is perceived as good for society. According to Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson in “Why Nations Fail,” a nation’s institutions can make or break its capacity to promote technological change. Good institutions foster innovation; bad institutions stifle it. The relationship between effective technology investment and implementation and economic prosperity most certainly applies to regions as well as countries. Effective collaboration in the Heartland Region will drive economic growth and success.
That collaboration must include both private and public entities, including their perspectives, interests, and input. Public agencies’ missions include providing transportation infrastructure, promoting safety, and maximizing the throughput and productivity of the transportation networks. In turn, private sector firms rely on these publicly provided goods and services to increase supply chain efficiency and productivity to deliver their products safely, securely, and on time to demanding customers. This interplay of private and public sector decision making is growing in importance as the world becomes more connected and dependent on standardized, complex technologies.
It bears repeating that good institutions foster innovation. Staying abreast of emerging freight-related technologies helps agencies both prepare for future changes in their area of control and influence and better coordinate efforts across jurisdictional boundaries. A defined methodology for monitoring emerging technology and the risks associated with their readiness improves communication between public agencies; builds key relationships with private sector technology providers and supply chain organizations;
6 Hülya Kesici Çalışkan, Technological Change and Economic Growth, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 195,2015, Pages 649-654
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and drives economic growth by maximizing the benefits to businesses, individuals, and society. Most importantly, it provides a means to develop seamless and harmonized technology implementation across the Heartland Region.
By embracing a common, shared methodology to identify, assess, and monitor emerging freight technologies, public agencies in the Heartland Region and beyond take a major step towards fostering effective innovation in freight movement. The recommended Freight Technology Watch List methodology (Figure 1) follows these five steps:
1. Create an initial watch list of emerging freight technologies. 2. Assess and rank the list on likely timeline for implementation using the maturity framework and assessment guide developed by Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) and Canadian Pacific Consulting Services (CPCS). 3. Assess and rank the list on overall benefits using five dimensions of benefits. 4. Assemble and share final ranked list. 5. Repeat steps 1-4 annually at a minimum.
Figure 1: Freight Technology Watch List methodology
Building on the HFTP project consortium members, public agencies can collaborate in a proactive technology monitoring process that engages key regional and national stakeholders in manufacturing, distribution, transportation, technology, academia, and not-for-profit industry groups. Working together, communication channels are created and strengthened, the “wisdom of the crowd” is leveraged, and information dissemination is greater.
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Key Point – Gathering and synthesizing emerging freight technology information once, collectively for use by multiple parties (DOTs, MPOs, etc.), promotes harmonization and builds relationships for knowledge and best practice sharing while reducing the cost and effort required to gather and promulgate the technology insights.
The end result of such collaborative technology monitoring is a more efficient, informed, and cohesive approach to selecting technologies to support and the methods to manage and guide their implementation and operation. With over 400 MPOs and 50 state DOTs across the country, collaborating on difficult and time-consuming tasks like monitoring emerging freight technologies is a task best shared.
FREIGHT TECHNOLOGIES WATCH LIST
Freight Technology Categories Everything has a genesis moment. From the broader HFTP project effort - ranging from the CPCS Emerging Freight Technology Maturity Framework and Assessment to stakeholder interviews, workshops, and surveys - an initial list of freight technologies was defined. While there are many individual freight-related technologies, they can be grouped into the eight categories as shown in Figure 2 and described in Table 1.
Appendix A has a listing of each identified technology by class. A narrative overview of Figure 2: Freight Technology Watch List Categories the technologies and classes follows.
Table 1: Freight Technology Descriptions
Freight Description Technology Automated Technologies that allow for greater productivity per labor hour. Big Data Information technologies specifically for the processing of large, disparate data sets. Data, Information, and Technologies to connect, collect, communicate Communication and analyze data.
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Digital Supply Chain Information and decision technologies to improve supply chain operations and planning. Energy Technologies producing alternative forms of energy to power the transportation of goods. Enforcement and Inspection Technologies to improve and enhance equipment inspection and traffic enforcement. Intermodalism Technologies that facilitate the linking of transportation modes. Safety Technologies that reduce the risk of injury, death and damage to vehicle and payload.
Automated Truly autonomous trucking is far in the future. Platooning, a form of automation that can vary from lower to higher levels of automation, has shown little practical value to- date. Automated vehicles may or may not require connected vehicle capabilities. As with many of the emerging freight technologies, alone they are simply building blocks. Together, they are solutions. The combination of technologies like telematics, artificial intelligence, and machine vision creates automated vehicle capabilities and innovations. While there is some skepticism on the viability of platooning as a technology, it is a step on the path to more automated operations. Locomation is an example of an automated vehicle firm following this incremental approach, demonstrating the viability of partial autonomy in a platoon operation, with greater autonomy to come later (see Figure 12). Beyond being an interim step towards automated operations, platooning may be viable in dense freight corridors (for example, Kansas City to St. Louis) where truck-rail intermodal service is impractical.
Big Data Enterprise data structures and collection mechanisms to collect, analyze, and disseminate massive amounts of origin-destination information combined with geo- spatial data are developing and expanding. Private sector firms are collecting “Big Data” volumes of information daily and they are making this aggregated data available. The volumes of this data are increasing by orders of magnitude each year. Firms like Inrix and Streetlight Data are examples of such Big Data technologies applied to transportation. Sensor or probe data - information collected from in-vehicle devices or cell phones - underpins most of the new technologies.
Data, Information, and Communication Telematics solutions, firmly in place across industry, provide the vehicle-to- vehicle/infrastructure connectivity and create rich data sets. Interactions between
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personal vehicles and commercial vehicles may lead to CAV freight corridors. Telematics is a key base technology that drives the efficacy of other technologies like CAV vehicles, automated inspection and size and weight limit enforcement. Trimble is an example of a leading telematics provider. Public agencies can help by digitizing road network attribute data which is important to many other freight technologies.
Digital Supply Chain Digital supply chains are advancing and will have secondary effects on transportation infrastructure. For example, visibility to capacity and demand coupled with artificial intelligence is increasing logistics efficiency (load factors, total miles operated). End-to- end visibility of shipment/vehicle status is required/expected for both shippers and carriers, and has value for public sector use.
Many of the data analytics or artificial intelligence technologies are focused on automation of tasks within a firm to increase operational efficiency and reduce the human interaction required to transact business (less calls, fewer touches, shorter paths). Software tools to leverage data about shipment status are growing in popularity, but this trend will have little direct impact on transportation infrastructure. Fourkites, Llamasoft, and Descartes are examples of firms providing digital supply chain technology.
Blockchain has not found wide-spread applications, but may have niche applications in areas like customs clearing. Private fleets see the need for more of their data to be available to public agencies. Digitizing infrastructure attributes (lane details, work zone information, road conditions, etc.) is increasingly important. The Internet of Things, where objects are connected, sensing, and communicating, is real and happening.
Energy Transportation is weaning itself from oil, and the electric truck is coming. First, to light and medium duty fleets, then to the class 8 heavy duty local (< 75-mile) and regional (< 300-mile) markets. In the EV market, hydrogen-fueled electric trucks are three to five years behind battery powered trucks (or more specifically, tractors, which is the industry term for the power unit where the driver sits in a combination vehicle pulling a semi- trailer). Nikola and Tesla are two examples of EV truck makers.
Electric power distribution infrastructure for vehicles needs to be further developed, standardized, and implemented. Charging stations will become the new truck stops, and these new truck stops will become significant electric power consumers. Fast fills ups via hydrogen as the energy delivery method makes it a viable future electric truck option. Modifications will be required in some areas. Close coordination with electric utilities is
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required to determine "behind the meter (BTM)" updates needed based on estimates of how much electric capacity is required to meet fleet power demand. Utilities like Ameren and Evergy are actively seeking to understand and serve the electric vehicle fleets of the future.
Natural gas, both compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG), are being used by carriers as diesel alternatives today but electric is likely win out over the longer term. The timeframe for this conversion is unclear, but government policy can influence timing dramatically if desired. Electric freight trains are in the distant future as the horsepower requirements are too large for current EV technology to meet.
Enforcement and Inspection Technology can simplify enforcement and monitoring activities, from Hours of Service (HOS) to toll collection to equipment inspections and weight limits. Drivewyze is a leading firm in applying these new technologies to transportation uses. Carriers benefit by eliminating lost time at these inspection/collection points.
Intermodalism Intermodal transportation is important for the traded commodities grown and goods manufactured in the Heartland Region. Links between road and rail and waterways are key connections for global distribution. For cost, reliability (of hauling capacity), and environmental reasons, intermodal shipping (rail to water, rail to truck, truck to Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) drone, etc.) is growing. Multiple Class I (large) railroads provide truck-to-rail intermodal service in the region: Union Pacific, Kansas City Southern, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Canadian National, and Norfolk Southern.
Perhaps the biggest change in transportation logistics is the shift to smaller, more frequent shipments direct to homes. More transload (transfer and interchange) points are being developed, moving freight distribution ever closer to the end consumer. Freight and people movement interactions will increase as a result of this changing supply chain dynamic (e-commerce, direct-to-consumer, same day delivery). Of course, Amazon is the best-known firm deploying this strategy today.
This direct-to-customer shift is already creating parking issues in metropolitan areas as delivery vehicles stop to deliver on nearly every street. Parking strategies and infrastructure are important considerations. Policies for road sharing are also important.
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The Physical Internet concept,7 where goods are moved in a similar manner to how data is sent through the Internet, is not seen as a currently practical technology; the loss of utility from standardizing containers and combining shipments is too great. Hyperloop is purely a concept and not soon a reality either.
Drones, or UAVs, are more likely to fill a niche in inspection roles or local delivery of certain goods like pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies, or to remote areas with few roads. UPS has a new division, Flight Forward, focused on drone delivery solutions.
Safety Safety technologies are valued by both private and public sector entities. CAV technology developers view safety as a key benefit to using their technology and are working to make transportation safer by eliminating human error as much as possible. ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) are real and widely accepted by carriers and drivers. Firms like Bendix and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) like Freightliner offer ADAS.
ASSESS TECHNOLOGY TIMEFRAME/MATURITY With a comprehensive watch list established and defined, the process of assessing each technology’s level of maturity begins. Using the technology maturity framework developed by MARC and CPCS, insights gleaned from stakeholder interviews and survey results are used to make an informed assessment of the maturity phase. There are four Technology Maturity Stages (TMS): concept, laboratory, field, and in practice. An implied fifth phase is adoption: the widespread application of the technology, the point at which both early adopters and followers have committed to the technology (see Figure 4).
Once conceived, which technologies advance? Key components that determine which technologies move forward in their life cycle include:
• Performance. Shippers can be expected to press for the technologies that improve performance, market position and their bottom lines. Carriers will answer by deploying new solutions. Consequently, what is demonstrably beneficial can affect what is probable by encouraging development and speeding adoption. • Scale. Technologies that can be deployed across a network and affect large volumes will be more compelling and more readily attract capital. Scale can be measured in terms of accumulated distance in intercity linehaul movements, or technologies that support pick-up and delivery throughout an urban area. The larger the market, the more likely the technology will advance.
7 https://www.picenter.gatech.edu
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• Cost. Carriers are typically conservative; they will prefer retrofits to new equipment, they will avoid equipment that could stretch their finances, and many will wait on the sidelines until they see a sure thing. Price parity with existing “business as usual” costs minimizes financial risk and favors the technology’s adoption. • Commitment. Agencies make long term investments that risk obsolescence and waste of public resources and political consequences, often yielding slower decision-making.
Each of these factors is from different viewpoints of the supply chain: shipper, carrier, government agency, and ultimately individual members of the publics’ needs and wants, communicated through both their willingness to pay for specific goods and services and their political responses. Having each key stakeholder’s perspective involved in the assessment of the technology’s likely future yields a more fully formed assessment.
A technology survey was conducted with project stakeholders to gauge impressions of technology maturity. Figure 3 summarizes the survey results, showing the range of assessments in a stock chart format for each of the freight technologies listed at the bottom. The boxes represent the 95 percent confidence interval of the maturity estimates while the bars represent the low-to-high range of maturity estimates. The shorter the box, the more people agreed on the technology’s maturity. The shorter the blue bar, the less variation in the opinions of the technology’s maturity. A long blue bar above or below the box may also be interpreted as a qualitative indication of the direction the opinion of the technology is heading.
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Figure 3: Project Stakeholders Technology Survey - Results
Figure 4: Technology Maturity Framework with Adoption stage
TMS-5
Adoption The technology is embraced as a core technology for both early adopters and followers.
Telematics and ADAS in trucking fleets.
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Another look at stakeholder perceptions of technology maturity comes from polling done during the technology workshop held May 6-7, 2020. Although not exactly the same, the results are mostly consistent. Information technologies are most mature, followed by safety technologies. Energy and automation technologies are less mature than other emerging technologies.
Figure 5: Responses to PollEverywhere Technology Workshop survey question – “Please rank these Emerging Technologies based on which ones are most likely to be implemented”
Key Stakeholder Engagement The wisdom of the crowd has long been recognized as a solid approach to decision- making and priority setting. A good example is the “Stranded on the Island” team- building game, which aims to show that the collective knowledge and wisdom of a group outperforms that of any one of the individual members. 8 Given the breadth and depth of the emerging technology landscape, therefore, the most successful strategy will be based on a team approach to scan and monitor the emerging technology landscape.
As part of the HFTP project, a broad set of stakeholders interested in seeing effective public policy and management to support the adoption of new freight technologies coalesced.
8 https://shop.humansynergistics.com/survival-simulation-series/reef-survival/
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Figure 6: HFTP project stakeholder entities
Using this diverse set of stakeholders, a crowd-sourced process to both assess and maintain the watch list of technologies is possible.
Economic Implications for Technology Investment – Task 2 Findings Revisited Not only is information about technical matters of interest but many other factors contribute to the decisions made about the use of technology. Political, social, or legal issues can all have an impact. For example, social trends, such as an increasingly aging population, can create a demand for new kinds of products or services. New methods to account for the cost of carbon emissions would dramatically change the cost-benefit equation for certain technologies. Economic sectors and their associated activity within a region are another determinant for which technologies move towards adoption.
Much of the economic activity within the Heartland Region occurs within the region’s nodal metropolitan areas given that these are locations of population and employment concentration. Urban delivery technologies for conventional and e-commerce applications thus are significant, robotics being one example. While local traffic by definition does not reach across the region, its issues and opportunities can be addressed in coordinated fashion. This could range from pilots in multiple locations - or in one location producing shared results – to policies developed in common that help technology providers to standardize.
The territories adjacent to Heartland nodes rank as their largest or second largest trading partner by freight tonnage and value. Therefore, connections between the nodes and surrounding areas is a strategic consideration. One technology these connections are suited to is electric trucks because the relatively short travel distances align with the operating range of contemporary batteries. Adoption of electrics opens up such questions as power grid capacity for charging stations, and revenue replacement for gas
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Rural areas account for the majority of Heartland territory. In addition to the nodal connection they depend on and their need for long-distance links for agricultural products (discussed below), they are low-density but highly seasonal areas for freight with local connections via farm-to-market roads. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) have uses in these districts, whether for road inspection or for e-commerce deliveries to farms. A contemporary task for road inspection is determining the presence and condition of lane striping, which is relied on by the safety systems in new model cars and trucks and will be later by driverless vehicles.
Trade between the region’s nodes is relatively weak. The top trading partners by value are mainly outside of the region. Therefore, long-distance connections between the region and other parts of the nation are a key consideration and are used by pass through freight as well. The backbone for these connections is shared multimodal infrastructure whose condition in one state affects the performance of shipments for another, and whose operating technology shapes the quality and cost of service. Technologies ranging from truck platooning to positive train control and its influence on railroad crew sizes are relevant, as are multistate information systems for uses such as truck parking availability and regulatory compliance.
The Heartland Region is well known for its agricultural production. These states have among the highest agriculture production in the nation. However, agriculture contributes a relatively small share of the region’s GDP. Overall, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade represent a larger share of economic activity among freight dependent industries. While the overall economic contribution of farms does not put them at the top of the region’s economy in terms of GDP, they are part of an overall cluster of related industries that are sizeable and important. Furthermore, food and agriculture products are traded industries, meaning that these industries compete with other regions and nations. Traded industries often have economic implications beyond their portion of a region’s GDP so their importance must be maintained. Other related industries are key elements within the area, including chemical and machinery manufacturing. Delivered cost is crucial to the competitiveness of Heartland products in national and global markets. Technological innovations in the lower cost rail and water modes that have key roles for those markets thus are important; container vessels for inland waterways are one example that Heartland agencies have been tracking.
Data and data systems are an essential enabler of most new technology. Examples and issues are numerous; a few of them are: a) driver information systems for
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communication of conditions and ultimately for vehicle-to-infrastructure networks; b) private-public data sharing, such as hard-braking locations collected from truck telematics; c) highspeed data capacity for rural areas, supporting participation in e- commerce and distributed manufacturing, and for supply chain visibility everywhere.
Key Point – Economic connections will highlight freight corridors where initial technology investment will have scale and be most viable.
ASSESS TECHNOLOGY BENEFITS Given that productivity - measured in the benefits achieved relative to the cost to attain them - is the predominant driver of whether a new process or technology is embraced by private and public entities, the technology maturity framework developed by MARC and CPCS identified four major groupings of freight technology benefits as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Freight Technology Benefits categories and profile
A fifth and final consideration is the cost savings and productivity benefits of the technology solution. Some technologies have the potential to lower direct costs. ADAS, electric trucks and intermodal operations are examples of technologies that offer reductions in operating costs. Fewer crashes means less crash and insurance costs. Electric trucks are projected to (soon) offer lower total costs of ownership as compared to diesel trucks. Intermodal solutions reduce transportation and delivery costs.
Technology investments are rarely made without such a cost-benefit or return-on- investment analysis. Rarely is the analysis completely objective, and assumptions and subjective opinions play a large role in final investment decisions. Having a pre- determined benefit list helps investment analyses to be both thorough and consistent
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by considering all relevant potential benefits and following a rubric for benefit assessments.
Certainly, no corporate Chief Financial Officer would approve an investment without a thorough cost-benefit analysis. For both private and public entities investing in new technology, costs can be estimated with reasonable accuracy, but benefits are less certain. Freight-related safety, environmental, connectivity and reliability benefits are estimated with varying degrees of confidence and precision. Thus, the tangible nature of cost savings and productivity improvements make the cost reduction benefit category the most significant of the five benefit categories in most investment decision-making processes.
Identifying Technologies with Public Benefit While freight transport contributes significantly to the productivity of the U.S. economy, it also involves sizable costs to society. Those costs include wear and tear on roads and bridges; delays caused by traffic congestion; injuries, fatalities, and property damage from crashes; noise; greenhouse gas emission impacts; and other harmful effects from exhaust emissions. No one pays those external costs directly; neither freight haulers, nor 9 shippers, nor consumers. Investment analysis and Figure 8: Total U.S. Greenhouse Gas decision-making by firms does not account for the Emissions by Economic Sector in 2018 public benefit of new technologies.
The impact of burning diesel fuel is a case in point. Transportation emissions are the largest source of United States greenhouse gas emissions10, and account for 28 percent of all emissions. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation primarily come from burning fossil fuel for our cars, trucks, ships, trains, and planes. Over 90 percent of the fuel used for transportation is petroleum based, which includes primarily gasoline and diesel. Diesel fuel also emits particulate matter (soot) and other undesirable pollutants (NOx).
9 Austin, David; Congressional Budget Office Working Paper Series Congressional Budget Office Washington, DC, Pricing Freight Transport to Account for External Costs, 2015-03, https://www.cbo.gov/publication/50049 10 https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions
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A 2010 study by the National Academy of Sciences11 reported the vehicle sector produced $56 billion in health and other non-climate-change damages, with $36 billion from light-duty vehicles and $20 billion from heavy-duty vehicles. Significant benefits are not being considered in certain technology investment decisions. Few carriers evaluating return on investment from alternative energy technologies will include a benefit from reduced illnesses related to fuel emissions, yet society will benefit greatly from these improvements.
Public agencies are in the best position to estimate the hidden, public benefits of new freight technologies. Early identification of hidden benefits can help shape public policy to favor the advancement of technologies with large public benefit and avoid the “tragedy of the commons”12 pitfalls associated with technologies offering significant external (to the investing firm) benefits.
Benefits Assessment Using interview and workshop input, each technology can be subjectively assessed on the level of benefit it will deliver to firms and society in general. This informed and aggregated assessment can be used to rank technologies based on the total impact they offer. With limited resources to invest, picking the portfolio of technologies that delivers the most value (benefits per dollar invested) while supporting regional economic and social priorities is the objective. Figure 9 is a representative guide for the areas of likely benefit by technology type.
Even when potential benefits may be significant, firms are unlikely to invest in a new technology if the cost, both to implement and to maintain it, are greater than the expected benefits. Economies that make efficient decisions – those where the benefits per dollar invested are significantly more than the costs to achieve them – succeed and thrive.
As shown in Figure 10, polling from the Technology workshop provided stakeholder input as to which technologies offer the most benefit. While subjective, it shows the importance of the emerging data technologies and the promise of energy and safety technologies to the Heartland Region.
11 National Research Council 2010. Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/12794. 12 https://www.britannica.com/science/tragedy-of-the-commons
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Figure 9: Freight transportation benefits from adoption of listed technology types
Figure 10: Responses to PollEverywhere Technology Workshop survey question – “Please rank these Emerging Technologies based on which ones will deliver the most overall benefit”
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Key public sector goals are to provide safe transportation systems with the necessary infrastructure and capacity to keep goods and people moving efficiently. With those three goals in mind – Safety, Infrastructure, and Throughput – an alignment of technology and goals helps match priorities with emerging technologies that enable and support each key goal.
Figure 11: Key public sector goals
Safety Infrastructure Throughput Safety Data/Information/Communication Automation Energy Automation Intermodalism Intermodalism Intermodalism
Further Discussion of Freight Technology Characteristics Automation technologies rely on data, information and communication technologies supported by public agencies. So, while public agencies will not directly invest in Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) technology, support of the connecting technologies (road signage and markings, digitized road network data, work zone information, right-of-way support for communication links) by agencies is needed. Ensuring that these connecting technologies are harmonized and standardized across jurisdictions is important for the success of automation technologies.
Improved safety is a benefit to both public and private sectors. Eliminating human errors will reduce crashes and the direct and indirect costs associated with them. As the automated vehicles become connected extensions of the supply chain and transportation systems, private firms will see competitive advantages from the increased visibility to granular supply chain information - like where is the shipment now and what is its estimated arrival date and time.
More modest benefits are expected from reduced environmental impacts from fewer crashes and the more energy-efficient operations from automated, optimized operations. Fuel costs are reduced for private firms while the public benefits from fewer greenhouse gas emissions and hazardous spills. With the ability to operate automated equipment more hours of the day, reliability benefits also are likely. A human driver can operate a truck less than half the day, generally during daytime hours. In a more automated scenario, the truck can operate nearly around the clock, giving private firms the ability to increase productivity while smoothing traffic patterns across the entire day. This increases public infrastructure throughput without additional road-building expense. Investment in enhancements such as more accurate and visible road striping, signalization updates, and embedding sensors in roads or street signs to facilitate
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infrastructure-to-vehicle communication will be required to realize the throughput improvement possibilities.
From the interviews and survey results, the technologies most likely to emerge in the next five years included Connected Vehicle Technology and Platooning. Together, these technologies create a system to automate on-road driving activity. In his project workshop presentation on May 6, 2020, Locomation CEO Dr. Çetin Meriçli explained how platooning is a first step on the path to fully autonomous driving. The challenge of automating a robot to operate within a warehouse, for example, is different than having that same robot operate on city streets. Thus, automation technologies are likely to be implemented in a crawl, walk, run method. Platooning, where the lead vehicle has a driver to monitor the operation while the others simply follow, is a first step towards full automation, as shown in Figure 12.
Figure 12: Truck platooning automation mechanism
Source: https://locomation.ai
It is important to note that this technology is not fully autonomous. It connects vehicles to a lead vehicle allowing the following trucks to mimic the actions of the leader. Input from carriers and OEMs regarding this technology is mixed. Daimler, a major truck OEM, discontinued efforts around platooning in 201913, saying the technology required to make platooning produces limited reductions in operating cost. A North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) report14 on platooning technology does show modest fuel savings potential (in the 4 percent range) but also notes that conditions
13 https://www.truckinginfo.com/322287/daimler-nixes-platooning-focuses-on-automation 14 https://nacfe.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/TE-Platooning-CR-FINAL-_0.pdf
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favoring platoon operations may make up only a small percentage of the vehicle’s operating hours making it difficult to cost justify this technology. Other concerns with platooning include interaction with solo vehicles while in convoy formation and the need to have similar equipment specifications (engines, transmissions, etc.) for effective platooning, not to mention workforce concerns such as loss of skilled driver positions, which is concerning to industry groups and elected bodies throughout the Heartland Region.
Platooning may be effective in certain niches. In the Heartland Region specifically, there are dense freight corridors where the length of haul is too short for intermodal truck- rail-truck service. Rail intermodal service can essentially platoon well over 200 truckloads in one-unit train (in 2018 the average intermodal train in North America carried over 170 truckloads15). However, this service is not efficient in shorter-haul markets like Kansas City to St. Louis or St. Louis to Des Moines or Des Moines to Omaha. Truck platooning may find a niche serving shorter-haul dense freight corridors like those present in the Heartland Region.
Big Data is an opportunity for both the public and private sectors. Big Data technologies are essential building blocks for both the public and private sector. Big Data is an ante required to benefit from most emerging freight technologies. Bi- directional data sharing and management processes along with the underlying information technology to share high volumes of data in near real-time will be required of public agencies as they seek to improve transportation planning and make smart highway operations a reality. Big Data technologies are in practice or fully adopted. Refinements and improvements will continue to be made of course. Origin-Destination Analytics are especially promising for public sector planning purposes.
Like Big Data, Data, Information and Communication technologies are building blocks for the future. Public agencies will need modern information technology capabilities to collect, clean, curate and share data between agencies and with industry. As with many technologies, it is the combination of multiple technologies working together that create the technology innovation.
In the area of Data, Information and Communication technologies, the three technologies moving to full adoption are Telematics, Smart Truck Trailers and Infrastructure Descriptive/Status data. Private firms have fully adopted telematics. This connectivity is enabling many other emerging technologies. This new, rich data
15 https://www.progressiverailroading.com/rail_industry_trends/article/Class-I-railroads-continue-the- longer-train-trend--55035
HEARTLAND FREIGHT TECHNOLOGY PLAN 30 Emerging Technology Technical Memo – FINAL source has the potential to enhance many public sector planning and management functions like truck parking demand, freight pattern and route analysis, curb space utilization, route diversion planning, and real-time monitoring and alerting among many others. Public agencies not only consume data, but also play a key role in providing data about roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure attributes. This data provisioning is an important building block if other emerging freight technologies are to reach their potential.
Digital Supply Chain technologies are mostly focused on private firm’s internal business processes. They often are investments to create distinct, competitive advantage for a firm. Public support of these technologies is less critical than that for other technologies like automation and energy innovations. While the connectivity from Data, Information, and Communication technologies is a key building block for digital supply chain technology, the public sector will have little need to invest in or support these specific technologies directly. Technologies in this category that do cross into the public sector applications include the Internet of Things and Sensors and Automatic Identification. These technologies will help public agencies monitor and maintain infrastructure components while capturing data needed for planning and design work.
Energy technology change, primarily in the form of vehicle electrification, will not place a significant technology burden on public agencies. Medium and Heavy-duty Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure are likely to emerge in the next five years. This emergence of electric vehicles (EVs) will require agencies to coordinate with electric utilities in new and significant ways to help plan electric charging infrastructure, electric grid capacity, generating capacity, and time-of-day power demand and traffic management.
Most major OEMs are entering the EV market with trucks capable of operating within local and regional markets. California recently passed legislation requiring manufacturers of medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks to begin selling zero-emission trucks in the state starting in 2024 with the goal of putting 300,000 electric trucks on California’s roads by 2035 and phasing out diesel trucks by 2045 16.
16 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/california-passes-historic-clean-truck-rule/
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Figure 13: EV Tractors Sales Growth Estimates
Source: Environmental Defense Fund Presentation, Jason Mathers, Director Vehicle and Freight Strategy
A classic “which comes first” question, electric vehicles need a new fueling (charging) infrastructure. In the case of electrification of vehicles, the answer is both. The private sector will lead by committing to EVs and simultaneously arranging their own private charging stations. Initially, EVs will operate in local inter-city areas and surrounding regions. The new tractors coming online will expand the operating range to the point that most Heartland Region lanes can be served effectively with EVs. Fuel Cell powered EVs like those being developed by Nikola and Freightliner will have longer ranges and shorter re-fueling (vs. recharging) times than the Battery EVs.
As the range of operation of EVs expands beyond a home-every-night duty cycle, public charging infrastructure will be required. A case in point, the West Coast Clean Transit Corridor Initiative recently released a study17 identifying I-5 electric charging stations to help prepare for EVs in this key corridor. Though much shorter than the I-5 corridor, the Heartland Region has similar dense freight corridors where EVs will operate. Electrification of transportation presents a unique opportunity for the Heartland Region. The lengths-of-haul fit within the range of EV technology. States in the region are among the leaders in terms of producing renewable electricity from sources like wind and solar power generation. Major utilities in the region are ramping up efforts to focus on fleet electrification and charging infrastructure to support the growth in freight hauling EVs. This sets the stage for a synergistic collaboration that supports and benefits both industry and the public good.
Enforcement and Inspection technologies will require public agency involvement as they guide and implement new innovations in things like tolling, truck parking, and
17 https://www.westcoastcleantransit.com/#resources-section
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equipment inspections. Safety benefits dominate these technologies, but there also are labor productivity benefits associated with utilizing them for enforcement and inspection work.
Technologies supporting Intermodalism, the mode-to-mode transfer of goods along the supply chain, require mostly policy support rather than direct technology support. Intermodal transportation offers many benefits to the modern supply chain, and public policy will need to adapt to the changing dynamics of e-commerce and the decarbonization of transportation, both of which drive intermodal innovations. Drone Delivery and Last Mile Transfer Stations are two intermodal technologies likely to expand in the next five years. Offering a wide range of benefits, the major focus is on the increased connectivity and reliability benefits. As e-commerce direct-to-customer shipping grows, these intermodal technologies allow for more efficient goods movement to the final consumer, especially in urban areas. Drone delivery also has application in remote, less densely populated rural areas where the cost to deliver is high. The current COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the resiliency that comes from a more connected and reliable supply chain network. Environmental benefits are also associated with intermodal operations, allowing shippers to choose more energy efficient solutions by using a combination of transportation methods for a given freight movement.
Safety technologies are the most advanced in terms of widespread adoption. Advancements in sensing precise local conditions, then communicating that to all interested parties, will require public technology support. Big Data and Data, Information, and Communication technologies will support these safety improvements. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Road Weather Information systems are two safety technologies primed for adoption in the next five years. Of all the emerging technologies, Safety technologies offer the most tangible benefits to both individuals, firms and society.
In calendar year 2019 for the five states of Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Iowa there were 17,049 large trucks involved in 15,922 crashes with 7,152 injuries and 455 fatalities 18. Using crash cost data from a 2007 Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) study19 that estimated the average cost of fatal crashes to be $3,604,518 per crash, the cost of the 455 2019 fatalities alone exceeded $1.6 billion dollars.
18 https://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/CrashStatistics/Default.aspx 19 https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/UnitCostsTruck%20Crashes2007.pdf
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Human error is a major cause of these crashes, and technologies are emerging to address them. The FMCSA has launched a program called “Tech-Celerate Now” 20 with private sector partners like the American Trucking Association (ATA, with significant representation from larger fleets) and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA, representing small-business truckers) to accelerate the adoption of ADAS in trucking fleets.
These systems go to the heart of public safety and corporate well-being. By encouraging the adoption of ADAS technology in fleets operating in the Heartland Region, public agencies can bring safer highways for the motoring public while the trucking companies will see cost reductions from fewer crashes. Rural areas have the problem that the incidence of crashes is low, but the severity tends to be high.
Having additional safety data input like that available in the ADAS technology helps identify and prevent safety issues. Moreover, when rural areas have economic and freight growth, either originating or passing through, the roads are sometimes not designed for the heavier vehicle traffic - two lanes, no or narrow shoulders, curb cuts - and safety risk rises. Small fleets and farmers are likely to be using old equipment that does not yet have this technology. Public agencies can work with multiple ADAS providers (agnostic, no favorites) to expand coverage in the Heartland, and help carriers operating there to acquire the technology. An example of this approach is the clean truck program the Los Angeles ports created to upgrade the dray fleet to cleaner trucks. With a program like this, the carriers get safer trucks, the ADAS providers sell more systems, and the public gets safety data from the providers pertinent to rural highways. This may be most effective at the state and multi-state level because states are more likely than MPOs to have the resources to execute a program of this nature, yet MPOs will be engaged and benefit because the data is good for urban areas too. The safety data and insights it could generate then get pushed out to the myriad counties. Regional collaboration begins as state DOTs have something valuable to share and counties are engaged in a systematic fashion. The states might then follow up with funding from their normal programs – or maybe competitive grants - to increase safety through road improvements. Thus, both the roads and the vehicles get better, and it is a data-driven process.
ADAS technology is an excellent emerging technology to begin a high-return collaborative technology adoption effort within the Heartland Region. It is ready, and it has significant benefits for all stakeholders.
20 https://www.tech-celeratenow.org
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MAINTAIN FREIGHT TECHNOLOGY WATCH LIST Technologies will typically follow the path from concept, to laboratory, to field, to in- practice and finally to widespread adoption as depicted in the technology maturity framework. This is commonly referred to as the S-Curve of innovation, a way of depicting incremental, disruptive and radical innovation. First described by Everett Rogers21 in the early 1960s, diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated and taken up over time. Rogers’ work emphasizes that the innovation itself is not the only determinant of its success. There must also be communication channels, time and a social system in place to enable the innovation to be used and adopted increasingly widely. The HFTP project is intended to help public agencies identify and support effective innovations by backing sound technology investments.
As said before, good institutions foster innovation. Effective plans for doing this work are vital.
Stakeholder engagement and ongoing collaboration are the keys to keeping a Freight Technology Watch List current. By having the appropriate stakeholders involved, technologies will be identified and flagged for inclusion on the watch list. Having a shared process based on regional collaboration across jurisdictions and industries provides the broad perspective needed for a complete assessment. In addition, it creates synergies from collecting and analyzing the data in one concerted effort to deliver and share an objective assessment of technologies likely adoption and potential benefits to share with all stakeholders.
Once the watch list is created, a process of incremental updates can begin. Not all technologies survive the journey. These are the deletions from the watch list. Also, technologies that are fully adopted can be removed from the watch list. New technology concepts will continually emerge. These are the additions to the watch list. Some technologies will shift and adapt, morphing into something different. Others will progress in their maturity. These are the changes to the list. The HFTP project established processes to identify these updates using a broad base of stakeholders and information gathering methods (research, surveys, workshops, and interviews). Not intended to be prescriptive, these are the basic requirements for maintaining the Freight Technology Watch List.
21 Rogers, E.M. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations (5th ed.). New York: Free Press.
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Many industries utilize associations, both formal and informal, to identify and vet new innovations and technologies. NACFE, the North American Council on Freight Efficiency, is a prime example. It offers a formal process for member firms to support research into numerous and complex technologies to improve freight energy efficiency. What would be too costly, burdensome, or beyond the capability of many organizations to do on their own, NACFE does once for all members. An honest broker of unbiased analysis, NACFE acts as the Consumer Reports trusted source for which technologies actually have value. NACFE communicates the benefits, challenges and the payback of energy efficiency technologies, summarizing the confidence fleets should have in adoption. The Council is an effort for fleets, manufacturers, vehicle builders and other government and nongovernmental organizations to come together to improve North American goods movements.
Consortiums of agencies like the Heartland consortium can shoulder this responsibility for regional government agencies. Certain academic institutions are also candidates to help support the process in an unbiased and cost-effective manner. Several universities in the Heartland Region, including Iowa State University and both Washington and St. Louis Universities in St. Louis, have supply chain research centers.
An effective way to increase stakeholder engagement indirectly is by including certain trade associations and their representatives in the process. Associations such as the Consumer Brands Association or the Retail Industry Leader Association represent shippers, the National Private Truck Council represents shipper-owned carriers and over half of the truck capacity in the United States. For the other roughly half of the trucking sector, the American Trucking Association is a voice for for-hire trucking, as is Owner- Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) for the many independent owner-operators. Both the Association of American Railroads and the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) are advocacy groups for rail interests.
Including representatives from these associations multiplies the feedback and expands the network of organizations by leveraging the various stakeholder networks.
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REPEAT CADENCE-DRIVEN ASSESSMENT PROCESS Having a scheduled timeline for scanning the external landscape to keep the Freight Technology Watch List current helps keep stakeholders engaged, builds better understanding of complex technologies, and strengthens the relationships that help create the social support required for full adoption of new technologies. It also facilitates the dissemination of information to all stakeholders. A recommended update process leverages the work done on the HFTP project.
Beginning with the stakeholder database, a survey is launched asking for additions, changes and deletions to the list as well as update assessments on the maturity and potential benefits of the technologies. Once the survey is completed, analysis of the results are next compiled, and selected interviews are conducted to further understanding and resolve any key differences in survey responses. Once the interviews are completed, a preliminary update to the watch list is done using the survey and interview information along with any additional research as needed. A key milestone is a workshop - on-line, half-day - to review and share the updated technology watch list. The workshop also serves as the final review, and once workshop comments are addressed and incorporated into the Freight Technology Watch List, the updated list is published and shared.
This is one process suggestion. Whatever approach is used, making it easy and worthwhile to participate for the stakeholders is key. Contributing to the effort should be painless and not overly time-consuming, and the learnings shared should provide valuable insight.
Figure 14: HFTP Survey and Stakeholder Outreach schedule
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HARMONIZATION
Freight technology is a diverse and expansive topic. The majority of technologies either pertain to the private sector or are shared public-private developments, and private stakeholders such as shippers and logistics service providers tend to be major beneficiaries. This means that public engagement with freight technology is fundamentally a cross-sector activity. In addition, because of the diversity and expansiveness of the topic, focus is a practical necessity, in order to make a large topic of practicable size and to concentrate public sector resources and management attention in productive areas. In addition, the Task 2 review of markets brought out three strategic factors that should influence this focus: • The Heartland’s urban nodes provide critical service in goods to their adjacent states, in regional freight operations; • Access to domestic and global markets outside the region is vital to Heartland industry, and involves long-distance freight operations; • Trade between Heartland nodes across its large rural territory is relatively weak despite common industry, suggesting an opportunity to function more as an integrated region.
A regional workshop evaluating issues of coordination and harmonization was held May 6-7, 2020 with over 50 representatives from public agencies and private organizations, including members of the Heartland Freight Technology Consortium. In addition to identifying key technologies, the workshop set out to: • Assess how public agencies currently coordinate technology integration practices and policies with industry advances in freight and supply chain technology; • Explore opportunities to harmonize regional policies and practices related to freight technologies going forward; • Define best practices to support regional technology deployment.
The workshop produced two sets of findings in respect to these topics: summaries from discussion groups that examined policy harmonization and technology coordination, and a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis for the region. The following pages of this section first present those findings, and then turn to recommendations for how the findings, combined with the technology assessment contained earlier in this document, can help the Heartland formulate an achievable plan of action, both in organizational form and in programs for implementation.
HARMONIZATION AND COORDINATION Three workshop discussion groups reviewed harmonization and coordination. All workshops participants contributed to each, and all groups were provided with a list of
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policy levers. Discussion of harmonizing technology policy made use of safety as a reference case, to keep the dialogue grounded in application. Discussion of coordinating technology was divided in two. The first treated regional freight operations and employed electrification as a reference case. The second treated long-distance freight operations; it did not employ a reference case, focusing instead on the consistency of regulations and systems across the region.
Harmonizing Policy and Practice This group considered the types of policies and practice that were worth harmonization and were suited to it, and what factors shaped its effectiveness with the public and private sector. The summary of findings reported in the workshop appears in Figure 15. An overarching consideration was that public agencies tend to have more experience with regulation than with enabling or incentivizing the introduction of new technology – particularly in respect to planning for freight, which has a shorter history as a formal public planning discipline than passenger transportation.
Figure 15 - Workshop Findings on Policy Harmonization
A central theme deciding the suitability of policies and whether the effort of harmonizing would be worth the payoff was actionability at scale. Breadth of jurisdiction, ability to win funds, political attraction to leadership because of constituent interest, and the availability of data to persuade or implement were all highlighted, and all are pragmatic considerations determining what agencies can get done. Findings on
HEARTLAND FREIGHT TECHNOLOGY PLAN 39 Emerging Technology Technical Memo – FINAL effectiveness echoed this: prioritization emphasizing appeal to funding sources and constituencies was important, as were the organizational elements of coalition, labor and skills, and leadership. The call for champions is a recurring one in the Heartland project; the characteristics it seems to reflect are a blend of formal authority, informal temperament, and internal or external political support. Data again appeared in the form of how to procure it: from crowdsourcing and UAVs (drones), which are less expensive methods of primary data collection than traditionally were available, and through third party intermediaries able to protect private sector, commercially sensitive data from release to competitors under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and similar sunshine laws. Finally, all of the Heartland states and some MPOs have or are forming Freight Advisory Committees (FACs), which are public forums with substantial private sector memberships charged with reviewing and influencing freight policy, plans and investment in their areas. Bringing Heartland FACs together on technology topics would aid the coordination of activity first because of their roles, second because doing so would be a form of collaboration between the agencies, and third because of the commonality of industry across the region and the likelihood that some FACs have similar members. This also helps address the strategic need for the Heartland to function more as a region, because companies do business without regard to jurisdictional boundaries and some provide service and jobs in rural areas.
Coordinating Technology – Regional This group considered methods of collaboration, private sector engagement and public involvement in the coordination of technology in the regional sphere. The reference case was electrification of freight fleets, chosen because a) this technology is advancing into adoption, and is consequential in a variety of ways; b) the range of operation possible today is limited to regional lengths of haul; and c) adoption of electric power in automobile fleets is advancing as well, giving wider utility to some provisions for freight. The summary of findings reported in the workshop appears in Figure 16. While several are specific to electrification (such as engagement of public utilities), others have general application to the coordination of technology.
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Figure 16: Workshop Findings on Coordinating Technology - Regional
NGO – Non-governmental Organization ATRI – American Transportation Research Institute
Collaborative actions begin with the importance of unified policy across the Heartland; even though individual trucks may stay within a given locale, carriers running them and industries buying their services have larger footprints, and standard approaches are necessary for efficiency. At least as important, new user charges replacing the fuel taxes electric vehicles will not pay are vital to the maintenance of the public roadway system everywhere. Designation of EV corridors is needed to guide the deployment of charging stations (probably by private enterprises supported by utilities, yet in the public interest); even though operating ranges are constrained today, they can be combined into relays and may lengthen as technology evolves. States can recommend corridors through the Alternative Fuel Corridors program. The use of incentives and direct investments is a more aggressive public step that might be justified by the scale of public benefits.
Collaboration with the private sector encompasses the option for joint ventures and the use of NGOs as intermediaries for protected sharing of data and information, including truck operating profiles that affect where electric vehicles will work best and how they should be supported. Public agencies are not well known to most motor carriers outside of regulatory requirements; with 90 percent of trucking companies owning no more than six trucks, engaging with them requires the right people at agencies be simple to find, and outreach efforts be specifically targeted to small firms. Education of agency and political leadership is needed so they are motivated, knowledgeable, and can act in concert. Agency rosters should incorporate personnel with the requisite background and technical skills.
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Coordinating Technology – Long Distance The third group considered the interoperability of freight carriage across Heartland jurisdictions and the ways that technology programs can aid it. Interoperability refers to the consistency of regulatory, technological and other regimes that affect whether the same equipment and operating practices can be used throughout a geographic territory, which has implications for the productivity, cost and quality of service in freight transportation. Crossing state lines pertains especially to long distance movement and incorporates traffic that passes through the Heartland as well as traffic originating or terminating. The summary of findings reported in the workshop appears in Figure 17. Interoperability is a multimodal issue, although the workshop discussion centered on highways.
Figure 17 - Workshop Findings on Coordinating Technology - Long Distance
Collaboration is essential to producing consistency. It functions within and between agencies, as well as with outside parties. The Heartland has experience with interagency programs; two examples are: • Kansas City Scout, a joint operation of Missouri and Kansas DOTs to manage traffic operations and information in the bi-state metropolitan area; • Truck Parking and Information Management System (TPIMS), a joint effort of eight Midwestern states - including four from the Heartland - to provide real time information to truck drivers about the availability of parking at designated facilities on major freight corridors. These states are all part of the Mid-America Association of State Transportation Officials (MAASTO).
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Both examples involve the application of technology within public agencies and yield benefits for private sector operations – but do not depend on private sector data input. Technology clearly makes collection and dissemination of actionable information possible across large territory and makes consistency easier to achieve.
Discussion in this group gravitated less to technology applications and more to how collaboration can be achieved, suggesting that is the first hurdle to improving interoperability. Regionwide cooperation is preferable to agencies competing among themselves for funds and economic development. It is more likely to address common challenges in consistent ways, which supports efficiency in freight carriage and reduces costs for Heartland industry. The influence of industry is an important means of fostering cooperation, because demonstration of benefits to industry not only makes the business case for private sector participation in public programs, it makes the business case for economic payoffs to agency and political leadership. Global competition in farming and food production is well understood as an economic reality in the Heartland.
Attracting and sustaining collaboration with industry was another significant concern. In addition to the emphasis on champions and protection of private data sources that arose in the Harmonization discussion described above, virtual meetings were cited as a means of reducing the time demands on private sector managers (and were top of mind in the pandemic spring of 2020 when in-person meetings could not be done). Some agencies give their FACs a role in prioritizing use of funds for projects, which is another way to demonstrate value to the private sector in return for use of their time.
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SWOT ANALYSIS
For the analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, participants in the May workshop divided into small groups to allow for focused conversations around three topics: • Strengths and Weaknesses in current agency readiness for best practices in implementing and managing freight technology • Opportunities and trends to leverage • Threats and roadblocks in ability to implement technology deployment best practices
Following the focused discussions, participants joined together to prioritize the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that had emerged from the small groups. The top five results from prioritization in each category appear in , and are reviewed in the following pages with additional detail from group discussions.
STRENGTHS In evaluating current readiness of public agencies in the Heartland Region for freight- oriented technology deployment, workshop participants reached a broad consensus that public agencies in the region already possess strong relationships with each other, with common goals and vision for freight technologies. For instance, regional MPOs already have established frameworks to facilitate inter-agency coordination, with regular collaboration already occurring, providing an opportunity to pool regional research dollars and grant funding to generate scale in the technology investments. The private sector is seen as being more effective at establishing the urgency for freight- technology deployment through the development of investment business cases, and the attendees highlighted public agency ability to leverage private partners in the region as a key capability. Job creation and investments in roadways in the region were recorded as already yielding success, and freight planning investments are seen making it into public-private collaboration.
Figure 18 provides a full list of the strengths cited during the workshop as part of the SWOT analysis.
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Figure 18: Analysis of SWOT Workshop attendee responses – Top 5 Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats
Source: WSP Analysis of PollEverywhere responses of SWOT workshop attendees – May 7, 2020
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Figure 19: Strengths - SWOT Workshop Responses Ranked by Participants
Source: WSP Analysis of PollEverywhere responses of SWOT workshop attendees – May 7, 2020
WEAKNESSES In discussing the primary challenges in the region for technology deployment, workshop participants reiterated the need for a clear institutional champion to see through technology projects to completion. Further, when freight technology studies are conducted, there needs to be a clear set of action plans that are implemented with identified funding.
A lack of clarity in goal-setting and diverse priorities across the region was highlighted as an obstacle to a cohesive technology plan. In particular, infrastructure needs across rural and urban areas should first be reconciled as part of a regional approach to technology deployment.
Some attendees also felt unprepared to handle the implementation of new technologies due to a lack of technical staff to leverage the opportunities available, develop the technologies and test/pilot prior to deployment at scale. A related weakness cited was a lack of expertise in utilizing existing data sources to communicate and frame a story to elected officials around a given need or opportunity. As mentioned above under Strengths, the private sector is seen as having these capabilities in place with the public sector lagging behind. However, public reluctance to embrace infrastructure technology rollout by private entities is a challenge that needs to be addressed, particularly as legislative support is often predicated on public acceptance and support. As much of the focus on new technologies is driven by the private sector, public agencies need to understand the options being explored, particularly as they relate to any unknowns in the safety implications of new technologies. Safety issues associated with the popularity of electric scooters in urban areas was cited as a parallel example
HEARTLAND FREIGHT TECHNOLOGY PLAN 46 Emerging Technology Technical Memo – FINAL from personal transportation, where public agencies need to get ahead of technology rollout by the private sector. Agency bureaucracy and red tape, as well as requirements such as FOIA and sunshine laws were also seen as hampering the velocity of technology deployment by public officials. Figure 20 is a list of the full set of weaknesses cited during the workshop as part of the SWOT analysis.
Figure 20: Weaknesses - SWOT Workshop Responses Ranked by Participants
Source: WSP Analysis of PollEverywhere responses of SWOT workshop attendees – May 7, .2020
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OPPORTUNITIES Workshop attendees reiterated the opportunity presented through participation in regional initiatives and studies such as the HFTP for developing consistent best practices and regulatory policy across jurisdictions, enabling coordinated infrastructure implementation projects on major freight corridors in the region. The Heartland Freight Technology Consortium, as well as other freight advisory committees, also allow agencies to share research and lessons learned with each other on various topics of interest. Participants cited the opportunity provided by technology to reduce dependence on repeated new investments in costly and cumbersome roadway infrastructure, by combining active traffic management techniques such as dynamic lane use control/speed limits, adaptive ramp metering with demand management technologies such as dynamic ridesharing, dynamic pricing and predictive traveler information. More can be accomplished by combining existing assets and programs with technology and making a strategic commitment to actively manage the transportation system. This includes first/last mile planning, with potential investments in shared mobility solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought into sharp relief the importance of freight systems to national and regional supply chains. Attendees saw an opportunity in the heightened public desire to learn more about the movement and management of freight. With agencies traditionally planning for more efficiency of private vehicles, the pandemic-induced appreciation for freight provides an opportunity to emphasize goods movement in regional planning, and thus a higher emphasis on economic growth. There may also be an opportunity to target potential grants and infrastructure stimulus to further regional freight objectives. As demand for e-commerce products has increased (thus changing existing freight movement patterns), there exists an opportunity to harmonize corridor level freight planning, with Heartland as the “heart” along specific corridors into other major hubs. Owing to its central location, the Heartland Region can service much of the rest of the nation fairly quickly. Figure 21 lists the opportunities cited during the workshop as part of the SWOT analysis.
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Figure 21: Opportunities - SWOT Workshop Responses Ranked by Participants
Source: WSP Analysis of PollEverywhere responses of SWOT workshop attendees – May 7, 2020
THREATS The main threats identified were increased need for new revenue policies to fund infrastructure growth/technology deployment, as well as potential pandemic-driven reductions in existing tax revenues for operations, maintenance and continuous improvement. As mentioned above under Weaknesses, participants reiterated the difficulties arising from a lack of a committed regional champion (on the public agency side) to push through technology investments to successful implementation.
Legislative resistance to increased investments in technology as well as the lack of a proactive policy towards such investments are other challenges that need to be overcome at the regional level.
Figure 22 is a list of the full set of threats cited during the workshop as part of the SWOT analysis.
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Figure 22: Threats - SWOT Workshop Responses Ranked by Participants
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FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS
This report concludes with recommendations for how Heartland agencies can organize to attain benefits and reduce deficiencies and presents two options for technology programs. The programs combine action in urban and rural areas, address strategic needs and support service in the Heartland’s principal markets, incorporate constituent appeal, and pursue material benefits from consequential technology in the near and medium term.
Recommendations included herein fall under two main categories: regional organization for success and a strategic action plan supporting both ADAS programs and electrification programs. This section ends with a call to action.
RECOMMENDATION: ORGANIZE FOR SUCCESS Heartland public agencies have experience collaborating with one another, as workshop findings have shown. The experience tends to be among the state DOTs or between MPOs and their states, and less so among the MPOs themselves. Experience is somewhat thinner in the freight realm, and because freight is about industries that drive economies, inter-agency competition for industrial location can be a barrier to collaboration. Nevertheless, common needs and opportunities, as well as a common industrial base, warrant a regional approach, and that seems possible to do.
A different challenge is collaboration with the private sector. As noted above, freight technology is fundamentally a cross-sector activity, yet there is not a deep well of experience to draw from apart from regulatory matters, which can pull parties into opposing camps. Even so, the benefits from freight technology frequently are mutual and interdependent, which is strong reason for collaboration. Moreover, solutions to the problem of protecting commercially sensitive private information from competitors (and regulators) are available through established intermediaries. Shared information then becomes a basis for shared agreements. In addition, freight operations and data for managing it are symbiotic and move in parallel streams, making the data component vital to collaborative programs. Some of the emerging freight technologies are themselves about data and analytics and can solve or facilitate data management and sharing issues. For example, cybersecurity and blockchain systems promise strong protections to privacy.
Organizing a regional approach to technology thus is desirable, beneficial, and best done in cooperation with the private sector. Before recommending how to achieve this regional approach, two structural models from the Heartland are worth consideration
HEARTLAND FREIGHT TECHNOLOGY PLAN 51 Emerging Technology Technical Memo – FINAL for the way they solve organizational problems: Bi-State Development (BSD) in St. Louis and Kansas City SmartPort.
BSD, which is the public agency that runs the St. Louis Regional Freightway program, was formed under a congressionally authorized compact between Illinois and Missouri in 1950. It pursues an economic development mission chiefly through operation of the regional transit system, relying on federal funds supplemented by constituent counties, and with bonding authority for capital expenditures. It shares boundaries with the East- West Gateway MPO, and the Freightway program was added to BSD responsibilities based on a recommendation from the MPO’s 2013 freight plan. Additional funding from counties supports Freightway activities, although the core operation of BSD is covered from the transit side and from other BSD enterprises. Freightway puts forward an annual list of improvement projects to be funded by the MPO, the state DOTs, grant applications, and other sources. A public-private oversight Council approves the project list, ensuring industry buy-in, and the MPO is fully engaged throughout the process. Freightway is managed by an Executive Vice President shared with other BSD enterprises, and one support staffer who is largely dedicated to the program.
The second model is Kansas City SmartPort, a private not-for-profit economic development organization that grew out of a public study: the 1998 Mid-Continent Tradeway Study by MARC and the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. SmartPort operates with two full-time, dedicated staff: a President with a background in economic development for the State of Missouri, and a Vice President for business development. The organization is funded by a coalition of local businesses for whom the attraction of freight-based companies to the region is good for growth, and there is some public participation. Although it is not a public-private enterprise, it is akin to one because of the experience and relationships of the staff with regional public agencies. SmartPort facilitates rather than funds development, marketing the region and helping to organize location packages, such as through incentives provided by public agencies or rail service to properties provided by SmartPort railroad sponsors.
Several observations may be made about these structures: • Both have funding and assigned or even dedicated staff. SmartPort is a stand- alone organization that benefits from the capabilities of public economic development agencies. Freightway is not a stand-alone, with most of its operational overhead supplied by BSD. However, constituent counties contribute to incremental freight expenses, such as marketing events and some staff time. • Implication for HFTP: assigned staff are desirable but must be paid for, and there is no multi-state agency in the Heartland on which to piggyback. MAASTO and the Mid-America Freight Coalition (MAFC) are possibilities as
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existing regional organizations, although Nebraska is not a member of either. Funds would also have to be found; grants are a possibility, as was done under MAASTO for the TPIMS program, yet grants are not a standing source. The immediate likelihood is that the Heartland consortium must remain together, supplying overhead for its activities from internal agency resources, until a more permanent structure can be identified and agreed. This should be approached as an evolutionary process, adding capacity as can be justified over time.
• Freightway has no direct authority over projects, but it serves as the de facto arm of the MPO for freight investment priorities and can apply for funds on its own. SmartPort has no direct authority over economic development, but it enables and influences it, and has partners with funds. • Implication for HFTP: constituent MPOs and DOTs can choose to treat the Heartland consortium as a primary reference for freight technology issues in their transportation and freight plans, and the consortium can apply for federal funds on behalf of constituents for regional initiatives. The timing for such a step is advantageous, because updates to state freight plans are in the works or on the horizon across the Heartland.
• Freightway is part of a public agency, yet it maintains engagement from the private sector by granting them influence over priorities in the capital program. SmartPort is a private organization with direct support from industry, yet it serves public purposes through agency relationships and their participation in transactions. • Implication for HFTP: FACs from Heartland states and MPOs can be convened as a group to review and influence consortium plans – and FAC members may become active partners. To the extent that Heartland agencies begin looking to the consortium for leadership, the FACs will affect technology decisions throughout the region.
Organization of the freight technology program should be structured around the following elements:
• Practical Scale: the region should aim to walk before it runs because of the: (a) level of collaborative experience, especially across sectors; (b) breadth of the topic, which calls for focus and targeted early applications; and (c) resources required to mount programs. With no obvious regionwide organization to attach to, and no immediate funds to support one, the consortium should remain intact and serve as the initial organization. This approach is the least costly in that it
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requires no new resources, although it assigns resources to the effort that otherwise might be employed elsewhere. • Scalability: freight technology, its applications, and possibilities will continue to evolve. The capabilities of the region should grow with it. At the outset, it is important to not over-organize; over time, the procedures for collaboration that the consortium initially develops must remain effective as new applications are added. Maintenance of the Technology Watch List outlined earlier in this document is a simple way to build this in, because it applies continuous attention to the array of technology and identifies fresh opportunities moving into practice. • Form: a regional system requires regional representation. The consortium has this, but the staffing is part-time and temporary. Both Freightway and SmartPort make use of committed personnel – not full-time necessarily, but permanent and part of the job description. The consortium cannot duplicate this without funds for the purpose, issued to or generated from the consortium as a whole. Its first task, therefore, is determination of the staff resources available from membership (including any changes of people), the level and duration of effort these resources can support, and a strategy to procure funds if more effort is needed. Whether existing resources are adequate or not, the consortium should be able to rely on general assistance from member agencies for office functions, and specific assistance through ad hoc working groups for initiatives that touch divisional responsibilities. For example, agency Safety divisions would be brought into safety applications. The organizational approach thus has a core team (initially the consortium itself) responsible for strategy and programs, supported by working groups drawn from member agencies responsible for implementation. • Champion: the necessity of a program champion stood out in the workshop findings. The authority of such a person derives from their formal position, their experience and temperament, their existing and acquired relationships, and the degree of their institutional and external support. In an organization with a dedicated staff, this person would be recruited and appointed as Director, which is the model adopted by Freightway and SmartPort. For the consortium as it is now constituted, options are: (a) assess whether someone suitable has emerged within the membership, or could be brought into the group from elsewhere in the agencies; or (b) seek a private sector champion amidst the region’s FACs, and pair them with the consortium chairperson. The effectiveness of the latter has precedent in states where the FAC has had strong private leadership – Texas is one example. If Heartland agencies adopt the consortium as their primary reference for freight technology issues in transportation and freight plans, the stature and influence of consortium leadership will be greater, and the likelihood of a regionally consistent approach will increase.
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• Funding: financial support to the program must cover a blend of fixed and variable costs. Fixed costs cover continuing staff time (e.g., so many minimum hours per month to have a program at all) and a basic operating budget. Variable costs cover specific initiatives. Assisting personnel are covered by the agencies they work for; added responsibilities certainly can affect overall staffing requirements at their employers, but redistributing workloads is a regular occurrence in agency management. Funding for fixed costs should come from reliable sources that can be committed for a number of years; State Planning and Research (SPR) funds come from the federal government and might be such a source. Variable costs could be applied for within existing agency programs (e.g., CMAQ for electric truck initiatives) or through competitive grants. Grants for economic recovery or from reauthorization of the FAST Act are two notable possibilities (but only possibilities) in 2020 and 2021. An obvious advantage to grant money is that it adds to agency budgets, whereas funds such as SPR and CMAQ may be already budgeted and difficult to tap – especially so across multiple consortium members, because some agencies may succeed in tapping funds while others cannot. • Jump-Start: The utility of an initial infusion of funds to jump-start the technology program is important in connection with grant opportunities. The I-95 Corridor Coalition began with federal earmarks for a defined set of activities; when earmarks were withdrawn, the Coalition had matured to the point that it could justify funding directly from its member states. The Institute for Trade and Transportation Studies began as a multi-year pooled fund study of foreign trade opportunities among southern states, then was maintained through state contributions from SPR funds as a continuing resource to help implement recommendations and sustain research. In the Heartland, the TPIMS program was funded through a federal grant won by a coalition of states. Grants in this way can serve a strategic purpose by putting a foundation in place. • External Partners: Several significant aspects of external partnerships emerged in the workshop and elsewhere in this study. First is engagement of existing FACs from Heartland states and MPOs on a regionwide basis. Second is use of intermediaries for protection of data. The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) and the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) are two; ADAS and other technology providers also can serve in this role. In addition, academic institutions can be viewed as bridge organizations between the public and private sector, and some have mature logistics programs working with industry. Because these may be state universities, there can be advantages from existing state funding and sponsorships, and challenges if programs must be spread among universities in multiple states because of home-state preferences. Finally, a work exchange initiative could be explored, under which agency staff
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would work in a private business environment for a time and the business reciprocate. The objective would be development of better mutual understanding of sectoral perspectives and institutional capabilities, and the fostering of relationships of long-term value.
RECOMMENDATION: STRATEGIC ACTION Many kinds of freight technology produce benefits both in the public and private sectors. Benefits are reasons for doing things. In establishing an initial course of action, this study concludes that the region should walk before it attempts to run, and that focus is a practical necessity. Thus, a program of action must be constructed around particular technologies, and in selecting them, the potential for political support is essential. This means benefits should appeal to industry and the voting public. Two of the most important benefits are safety and cost; the former is a primary issue for voters and public transportation agencies, the latter receives constant attention from industry and is a determinant of regional competitiveness. Benefits should begin to appear in a tangible time frame - probably within three to five years –to matter to constituents today. That implies technologies must be in the field already, and preferably becoming adopted. Benefits moreover are fundamental to the quantitative methods of deciding funding priorities and awarding grants, such as benefit-cost analysis and return on investment. Here, too, the time frame is material, because near term benefits are worth more than long term under present value accounting.
A different category of consideration in program design is strategic. Two significant insights from the Task 2 market analysis are (a) that the Heartland does not function effectively as a region and must involve its large rural territory to do so; and (b) that service to local markets in and around the Heartland nodes, and long distance markets outside the region, are the prevailing dynamics of the Heartland freight system. Technologies that cater to these purposes have overarching value to the economic and social fabric of the region.
This section outlines two programs of action that address the foregoing factors and illustrate how a program can be constructed. One uses ADAS technology and offers benefits in one to three years. The other involves electrification and plays out over three to five years; the longer time frame makes sense today because the technology has important consequences. These are not the only program options the Heartland might elect to undertake, but they are the most useful and productive current examples.
In discussing public initiatives, this plan has employed five policy levers by which public agencies can support freight technologies to secure benefits. Risk management is a factor in a number of them: for instance, standards help to codify technology, regulation mitigates disbenefits, investment ensures attainment of public benefits that private
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investment alone may not produce or may take longer to produce. Several of these levers are applied in the programs of action described below.
Policy Levers
1. Direct Investments: expend funds for the use or deployment of technologies on their system 2. Enabling Support: facilitate, collaborate with, or support research bodies or private actors for the research, development, or testing of technologies and pilot efforts on the actual system 3. Regulations and Standards: design regulations, standards, and guidelines for the performance specifications and use of technology 4. Incentives: provide financial or other incentives to shape individual or organizational activity 5. Governance: oversee the transparent and legitimate use of data and related public resources
RECOMMENDATION: ADVANCED DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS PROGRAM SUPPORT ADAS are in the early stage of adoption and are among the most mature new technologies in this regard. They have the advantage of providing immediate benefits while being part of the suite of technologies that lead in time to automated and autonomous vehicles, and thus are both practical and forward-looking. They are a safety technology that reduces cost and offers a compelling set of benefits:
• Safety is the chief concern with freight transportation for the general public, and improving safety reduces a main objection to policies and investments that support freight and the industry it serves. Moreover, ADAS benefits are understandable to voters: features such as forward collision warning, automated braking, and blind spot warning have been appearing in new automobiles for several years; they are advertised by auto makers; and drivers have first-hand experience of their value. • Safety is a top concern of motor carriers and their drivers. Beyond its innate value for protecting human life, safety improvements reduce accident and insurance costs in trucking, as well as risks of expensive litigation. In addition, ADAS technology is associated and is often combined with telematics, which through monitoring the condition of vehicles work to reduce their operating costs. Cost reduction joined with safety improvement is a persuasive pair of benefits.
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Road safety is problematic in rural districts because, while crashes in these less populated areas have lower frequency, their severity is higher. Contributing factors are many: driver behavior and response to conditions, lane and shoulder widths, speeds, lighting, entrance roads and driveways, and pavement conditions are some. However, because accident frequency is low and the miles of road are many, systematic analysis of safety risk can be difficult. Prediction is hobbled because comprehensive data about roadway conditions tend to be local and thus may be absent on a statewide basis. ADAS in motor carriage capture hard braking and near-accident events, which are indicators of risk. ADAS providers report such data to carriers but also can aggregate and anonymize it and may not be constrained as to its use. In other words, they are a natural, neutral intermediary. Their limitation is the number of carriers using ADAS and the proportion who are their subscribers. Geographic coverage therefore is restricted, and typically would be better in urban areas because of greater volume of freight.
The regional ADAS program should seek to enlarge geographic coverage of the rural Heartland. Lack of reconciliation between rural and urban needs was a top weakness in the SWOT analysis, and ADAS is a case in point. Tackling it helps to offset a strategic deficiency. The proposition to ADAS providers could be this: The Heartland will promote adoption of ADAS in rural areas in return for free access to aggregated, anonymous safety data. Such agreements will be available to any and all providers who accept the terms, and the companies could be certified in some fashion if they meet certain requirements. The systems can include telematics, because that will augment the cost reduction motor carriers can expect from adoption.
The FMCSA “Tech-Celerate Now” initiative described earlier in this document has a similar objective and should be brought into partnership - but the Heartland should go a step further. Promoting the benefits of ADAS is insufficient when the overwhelming majority of truck lines have a handful of vehicles or are owner/operators. The proportion of small fleets active in rural areas is apt to be greater – including farm operations – and their financial resources will be shallow. They need financial assistance to acquire the ADAS that are in the interests of their business, their customers, and their community. Public provision of assistance can be justified in two ways: it puts safer trucks on the road, and it supplies public agencies with the data necessary to target roadway design improvements where they will reduce risk. This is additionally important as an aspect of economic development. A drawback to industrial growth in rural areas – which inevitably brings more truck traffic – is that the roads are not designed for the demand, and safety deteriorates. Establishing a firm method of recognizing incipient safety risks makes economic growth more welcome and is an efficient form of public stewardship.
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Financial assistance could be modeled on the previously cited clean truck programs of West Coast ports, whose key feature was helping owner/operators afford newer trucks. Financing could be positioned as a small business program, to head off equity objections from large fleets who have purchased ADAS without assistance. The availability of grants to help generate seed capital should be explored, and conceivably could come from short-term federal economic stimulus, especially as a regionwide initiative. Carriers serving urban areas should be eligible and not disadvantaged, but the publicity effort should be geared to rural areas.
Organization of the ADAS program will involve working groups in such disciplines as finance, promotion, contracts, and technical partnerships, but a key one is implementation of data-driven road safety investments. Local jurisdiction lies with counties, of which there are over 400 in the Heartland. This means regional coordination should come from the state DOTs, which have existing safety agendas and can help access federal resources, as Kansas and other states are doing with the FHWA Local and Rural Road Safety Program.
The deeper purpose of the ADAS program is cultivation of rural connection to regional technology advancement, with the institutional and personal relationships that help create and sustain it. Farms are already engaged with aspects of blockchain and the Internet of Things;22 the extension of fiber optic and 5G networks into rural territory over time will be necessary precursors to the adoption of a range of new technology. Looking ahead in the Heartland, ADAS is an achievable first step in the path.
RECOMMENDATION: ELECTRIFICATION PROGRAM SUPPORT Electric trucks are in the field stage of development and should move into adoption within five years. There are several reasons why they are worthy of attention now:
• The appeal of electric trucks to motor carriers is threefold. First, viable tractors for tractor-trailer combinations are coming on stream. Combination vehicles (heavy duty trucks) are the workhorses of the freight system. Second, cost of ownership could prove to be lower than diesel, partly because of fuel costs (although taxes could affect them) and partly because of simpler engines that are easier and less expensive to maintain. Third, drivers who try them like their handling characteristics; for example, they can maintain stopping distance between vehicles (which is an all-day routine for truck drivers adjusting to automobiles) with less trouble. Lower cost along with strong driver preference is an incredibly attractive pairing for trucking companies.
22 See https://www.farmobile.com as an example
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• Narrowly, electric trucks are an energy technology whose main benefit comes from superior environmental characteristics. This is meaningful in itself and would create costs savings if some form of carbon pricing ever is introduced. However, these trucks also are suited to drayage in rail-truck, barge-truck, and air-truck operations, promising lower costs in combined transport and fitting the wider benefit profile of intermodal technology. • The fast-charging infrastructure necessary to support electric trucks must be developed and, according to representatives from public utilities attending Heartland workshops, the necessary megawatt capacity will be substantial. While motor carriers can be expected to install charging devices at company terminals, a reliable freight operation is going to require remote, public stations. Public support for such infrastructure is apt to be driven by demand from electric automobiles, which are on the road today and will grow in number as range improves and purchase price comes down. Electric power companies expect this infrastructure to come from joint efforts by private developers backed by the utilities, but there are clear roles for public agencies in facilitating and locating this. The key consideration today is that preparation and installation of infrastructure will take several years to start and more to expand. A reactive approach to technology is one of the top weaknesses identified in the Heartland SWOT analysis. With demand for charging on the horizon and its absence an obvious drag on attaining benefits, plans should be getting underway. • Ineffective methods of revenue generation to enable maintenance and improvement of the transportation network are the Heartland’s number one weakness, according to the SWOT analysis. The lack of a system by which EVs pay for use of the network – other than by tolls on the roads that have them – is a deficiency increasing in urgency. The electronic logging devices now required in trucks under federal Driver Hours of Service regulations are a ready-made means of accurately calculating road usage, yet pricing schemes must not make electric trucks costlier to run than diesel. Pilot programs for testing alternative revenue mechanisms are a feature in one version of upcoming reauthorization of federal transportation legislation. Finally, pricing schemes will be more effective and better accepted if they are regionwide, but that is a challenging political objective. As with charging infrastructure, the need for revenue mechanisms is coming from the horizon and the time for preparation is about to arrive.
The major limitation of electric trucks is operating range, which today is up to 300 miles. From Kansas City, all seven of the other Heartland nodes defined in Task 2 can be reached with a single charge, but for most nodes only three or four others are in range (the table in Figure 23 illustrates this). Although relays might be established in some circumstances, the most typical operation would mix local with round-trip service to
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surrounding territory within 150 miles – but that satisfies one of the principal types of freight demand in the region. Task 2 of this study found that the top markets by tonnage for most of the Heartland nodes were the local market and the surrounding state. The day cabs (tractors without sleeper berths) in widespread use among motor carriers are designed for this class of service, and the electric tractor-trailers coming on stream have day cabs. These are chiefly urban operations because density of demand helps keep the vehicles fully utilized.
Figure 23 - Heartland Nodal Lanes Within 300 Mile Range
Miles Between Heartland Freight Nodes
Nodes Kansas City St. Louis Omaha Des Moines Springfield Wichita Sioux City Grand Island Kansas City 248 185 193 166 199 278 288 St. Louis 248 432 349 216 442 525 535 Omaha 185 432 134 350 302 96 150 Des Moines 193 349 134 356 390 197 280 Springfield 166 216 350 356 248 443 453 Wichita 199 442 302 390 248 398 275 Sioux City 278 525 96 197 443 398 181 Grand Island 288 535 150 280 453 275 181
Key: Miles <300 Source: Google Maps, WSP analysis
The applicability of electric trucks to intermodal operations by rail, barge, and air was noted above. These modes are critical to serving the long distance domestic and global markets that are vital to the Heartland economy. The drayage element (pick-up and delivery by truck) is always a material and sometimes the most expensive component in intermodal cost of service. If EVs can bring down that cost, the region becomes more competitive. Electric trucks thus have the potential to play a productive role in both major markets for Heartland freight – local and long-distance – with the operating ranges that already are becoming available.
The Electrification program adds a medium-term initiative to the more immediate ADAS program. The emphasis favors urban areas while ADAS favors rural, although each program has relevance to the other kind of territory. Organizing for electrification will entail working groups with utilities, wind and solar producers, truck stops, and other developers interested in serving passenger as well as freight vehicles. Taking a regional approach to key freight corridors was the top opportunity in the SWOT analysis; identification of EV corridors on a regionwide basis would be an appropriate mission for another working group. This also would prepare the region to pursue EV Corridor funding that may emerge from federal transportation reauthorization. Although the freight use of such corridors is apt to be radial from Heartland nodes, there is ample
HEARTLAND FREIGHT TECHNOLOGY PLAN 61 Emerging Technology Technical Memo – FINAL traffic within 150 miles; distances could be extended if recharging can be done in minutes instead of hours; as shown above, corridors from Kansas City could reach the other Heartland nodes.
Possible working groups should include at least two, and potentially three others. The first is to explore pricing, a sensitive subject with large ramifications that is already on the policy radar of most agencies. Existing groups and studies may well take over this topic, although the importance of a regional approach bears repeating. The second group is to track adoption of electric trucks by the motor carrier industry. FACs and industry journals are two good sources. A third would add identification of electric trucks as a data element at Heartland weigh stations and during safety inspections. Although not a comprehensive source, trends should be visible from such data.
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX A – EMERGING TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY
Automation
Big Data
Data, Information, Communication
Digital Supply Chain
Energy
Enforcement and Inspection
Intermodalism
Safety
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Class Type Element
Automation Autonomous An autonomous vehicle is one that is Vehicles/Vessels/Trains fully self-driving and can pilot itself from a starting point to a predetermined destination using various in-vehicle technologies and sensors Automation Connected vehicle Technology that will enable cars, technology/Platooning buses, trucks, trains, roads, other infrastructure, and smartphones or other devices to “talk” to one another Automation Advanced Driver Assistance Technologies to make vehicles safer Systems by automating, improving or adapting tasks involved in operating a vehicle Automation Inspection Drones (rail) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) used to inspect remote objects Automation Longer Combination Vehicles Long combination vehicles combining (LCVs) multiple trailers behind a single tractor Automation Warehouse Technology to automate various automation/robotics warehouse functions like receiving, stocking and picking BIG Data Enterprise Data Architectures Data blueprints designed to align IT programs and information assets with business strategy BIG Data Geo-spatial data structures Geospatial data combines location information (coordinates on the earth), attribute information (characteristics of the object, event, or phenomena concerned), and often temporal information (the time or life span at which the location and attributes exist) BIG Data O-D Analytics The collection, curation, and analysis of origin-destination (OD) data representing movement through geographic space from an origin to a destination
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Data, Distributed Ledger Distributed ledgers use independent Information Technology (Blockchain) computers to record, share and and synchronize transactions in their Communication respective electronic ledgers (instead of keeping data centralized as in a traditional ledger). Blockchain is one type of a distributed ledger. Data, Infrastructure Data sets describing the detailed Information descriptive/status data physical features of specific and infrastructure ecosystems like roads Communication and highways Data, Road/route information Collection and dissemination of actual Information sharing anonymized vehicle trip data and Communication Data, Smart truck trailers Smart trailers can be any type of Information trailer, from flatbed to reefer, that and provide insights into the status of the Communication trailer and its cargo using sensors to measure a wide array of features like mileage, location, temperature, humidity, shock, and vibration. Data, Data Analytics/Artificial A wide variety of statistical and Information Intelligence mathematical tools to gain insights and from data approaching human-like Communication decision making Data, Telematics The integrated use of communications Information and information technology to and transmit, store and receive information Communication from telecommunications devices to remote objects over a network Digital Supply Robotics and automation Use of robot and other automation Chain technologies to replace or enhance human labor and decision-making Digital Supply The Internet of Things (IoT) A network of physical objects that Chain contain embedded technology to sense, communicate and interact with their internal states or the external environment
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Digital Supply Wearable and mobile Wearable (computers) and their Chain technology interfaces designed to be worn on the body, such as a wrist-mounted screen or head-mounted display, to enable mobility and hands/eyes-free activities and monitoring Digital Supply Digital freight networks Computerized clearing houses for Chain matching freight shipments with carriers Digital Supply Sensors and automatic Technology to detect and recognize Chain identification objects without human involvement Digital Supply Cloud computing and Use of off-premise computing and Chain storage data storage capacity/capability Digital Supply Inventory and network Mathematical tools to optimize the Chain optimization level and location of distribution flows and nodes Digital Supply Predictive analytics Statistical methods to predict Chain outcomes based on known data Digital Supply Routing/scheduling/shipment Algorithms to plan the efficient Chain consolidation algorithms sequence and path of multiple shipments while meeting service needs Energy Charging infrastructure Electric charging stations and related power grid features to support electric vehicle battery charging Energy Electrification - Trucks Electric-powered trucks, including battery-electric and hydrogen fuel- cell-electric technology Energy Smart Grid Technology that allows for two-way communication between the utility and its customers, and the sensing along the transmission lines to respond to quickly changing electric demand Energy Alternative fuels Any fuel besides petroleum-based fuels used to power transport vehicles Enforcement Equipment Condition Methods to automatically identify and inspection faulty or improper equipment condition
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Enforcement Hours-of-Service (HOS) Hours-of-Service/Electronic Logging and inspection /Electronic Logging Devices Devices used to monitor commercial (ELD) drivers’ compliance with regulations around work hours Enforcement Parking/Smart Truck Parking Methods to automatically identify and inspection truck parking usage and availability Enforcement Size and Weight (in motion) Technologies that monitor vehicle and inspection compliance with size and weight laws without stopping for manual inspection Enforcement Tolling Technologies to charge and collect and inspection usage tolls while in motion Intermodalism Hyperloop A high-speed transportation system in which specialized pods are accelerated through a low-pressure tube to achieve speeds near the speed of sound Intermodalism Physical Internet A global logistics system concept for moving products in standard-sized, modular containers as efficiently and seamlessly as the internet moves digital information across platforms and continents Intermodalism Drone delivery Delivery to final stop by unmanned drone Intermodalism Last mile transfer stations Small freight transfer locations used to stage and sort shipments for final delivery Intermodalism Drayage optimization Mathematical models to match drayage truck capacity and trailer/container availability and appointment scheduling at intermodal (rail and port) terminals Intermodalism Transloading The process of moving a shipment from one mode of transport to another before it reaches its final scheduled destination Intermodalism Non-barge Inland Container Containerized shipping via inland Vessels waterways
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Safety Cooperative Adaptive Cruise A combination of sensors and vehicle- Control to-vehicle communication enabling vehicles to adjust their speed to the preceding vehicle in their lane, even beyond the line of sight Safety Intersection Movement Assist A system that warns the vehicle and its driver when it is not safe to enter an intersection due to high collision probability with other vehicles at stop sign controlled and uncontrolled intersections Safety ITS (Intelligent sensor-based The application of sensing, analysis, infrastructure) control and communications technologies to ground transportation in order to improve safety, mobility and efficiency Safety Smart Truck Parking Data collection and distribution technologies to monitor, report and recommend truck parking options for commercial truckers Safety Road weather operations Environmental Sensor Stations (ESS) in the field, a communication system for data transfer, and central systems to collect, summarize and disseminate the road weather information Safety Onboard safety Technologies to make vehicles safer devices/advanced driver by automating, improving or adapting assistance systems tasks involved in operating a vehicle and monitoring its actions Safety Positive Train Control (PTC) Technologies able to determine the precise location, direction and speed of trains; warn train operators of potential problems; and bring the train to a stop if the operator does not act
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APPENDIX B – TECHNOLOGY MATURITY ASSESSMENT
Class Type Element
4-In Practice Automation Advanced Driver Assistance Systems
4-In Practice Automation Inspection Drones (rail)
4-In Practice Automation Longer Combination Vehicles (LCVs)
4-In Practice Automation Warehouse automation/robotics
4-In Practice BIG Data Enterprise Data Architectures
4-In Practice BIG Data Geo-spatial data structures
4-In Practice BIG Data O-D Analytics
4-In Practice Data, Information Data Analytics/Artificial and Communication Intelligence
4-In Practice Data, Information Telematics and Communication
4-In Practice Digital Supply Chain Cloud computing and storage
4-In Practice Digital Supply Chain Inventory and network optimization
4-In Practice Digital Supply Chain Predictive analytics
4-In Practice Digital Supply Chain Routing/scheduling/shipment consolidation algorithms
4-In Practice Enforcement and Size and Weight (in motion) inspection
4-In Practice Enforcement and Tolling inspection
4-In Practice Intermodalism Drayage optimization
4-In Practice Intermodalism Transloading
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4-In Practice Safety Onboard safety devices/advanced driver assistance systems
4-In Practice Safety Positive Train Control (PTC)
3-Field Data, Information Infrastructure descriptive/status and Communication data
3-Field Data, Information Road/route information sharing and Communication
3-Field Data, Information Smart truck trailers and Communication
3-Field Digital Supply Chain Digital freight networks
3-Field Digital Supply Chain Sensors and automatic identification
3-Field Energy Alternative fuels
3-Field Enforcement and Hours-of-Service/Electronic inspection Logging Devices
3-Field Enforcement and Parking/Smart Truck Parking inspection
3-Field Safety Road weather operations
2-Laboratory Automation Connected vehicle technology/Platooning
2-Laboratory Data, Information Distributed Ledger Technology and Communication (Blockchain)
2-Laboratory Digital Supply Chain Robotics and automation
2-Laboratory Digital Supply Chain The Internet of Things (IoT)
2-Laboratory Digital Supply Chain Wearable and mobile technology
2-Laboratory Energy Charging infrastructure
2-Laboratory Energy Electrification - Trucks
2-Laboratory Energy Smart Grid
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2-Laboratory Enforcement and Equipment Condition inspection
2-Laboratory Intermodalism Drone delivery
2-Laboratory Intermodalism Last mile transfer stations
2-Laboratory Safety Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control
2-Laboratory Safety Intersection Movement Assist
2-Laboratory Safety ITS (Intelligent sensor-based infrastructure)
2-Laboratory Safety Smart Truck Parking
1-Concept Automation Autonomous Vehicles/Vessels/Trains
1-Concept Intermodalism Hyperloop
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APPENDIX C – EMERGING TECHNOLOGY SURVEY SUMMARY
Rank: 1=Concept, 2=Lab, 3=Field, 4=In Practice Mean: Average survey rank Lo/Hi 95 percent: 95 percent confidence interval for survey assessment range
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