So many empty trucks!
Question: What do the trucks in the pictures have in common?
Answer: They are empty.
Problem: Look around you when driving on the highway. It seems that every third truck some of the wheels up to reduce friction when driving empty.
An average truck has a twelve (12!) liter engine that consumes on average 30 liters of fuel every 100 km with the emissions that correspond to it.
Solution:
In the airline industry all planes must produce a flight plan before taking of. Something similar can be done with trucks. On a central market place, all trucks must show that they have a load for going from A to B AND from B to A.
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All loads must be equally offered on this market place and all transport companies must be able to acquire any load. This can be for a flexible regulated price or through market principles. The latter is more difficult however.
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In case the system is not able to provide for a return load, it will give the transport company a "free ride". This however should be a very rare exception.
Setting up our transport system like this will eliminate 1/3 of the trucks on the road, will increase the capacity of the logistical system and will reduce emissions significantly.
