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TOKYO —\u00a0Japan is planning to build an automated cargo transport corridor between Tokyo and Osaka, dubbed a \u201cconveyor belt road\u201d by the government, to make up for a shortage of truck drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The amount of funding for the project is not yet set. But it’s seen as one key way to help the country cope with soaring deliveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A computer graphics video<\/a> made by the government shows big, wheeled boxes moving along a three-lane corridor, also called an \u201cauto flow road,\u201d in the middle of a big highway. A trial system is due to start test runs in 2027 or early 2028, aiming for full operations by the mid-2030s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need to be innovative with the way we approach roads,\u201d said Yuri Endo, a senior deputy director overseeing the effort at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apart from making up for a shrinking labor force<\/a> and the need to reduce workloads for drivers, the system also will help cut carbon emissions<\/a>, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe key concept of the auto flow-road is to create dedicated spaces within the road network for logistics, utilizing a 24-hour automated and unmanned transportation system,\u201d Endo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plan may sound like a solution that would only work in relatively low-crime, densely populated societies like Japan, not sprawling nations like the U.S. But similar ideas are being considered in Switzerland and Great Britain. The plan in Switzerland involves an underground pathway, while the one being planned in London will be a fully automated system running on low-cost linear motors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Japan, loading will be automated, using forklifts, and coordinated with airports, railways and ports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The boxes measure 180 centimeters in height, or nearly six feet, and are 110 centimeters, or 3.6 feet, by 110 centimeters in width and length, about the size of a big closet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The system, which is also intended for business deliveries, may be expanded to other routes if all goes well. Human drivers may still have to do last-mile deliveries to people’s doors, although driverless technology may be used in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Japan’s shortage of truck drivers is worsening due to laws that took effect earlier this year that limit the amount of overtime drivers can log. That’s seen as necessary to avoid overwork and accidents and to make the jobs tolerable, but in Japanese logistics, government and transportation circles, it\u2019s known as the \u201c2024 problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under current conditions, Japan’s overall transport capacity will plunge by 34% by 2030, according to government estimates. The domestic transport capacity stands at about 4.3 billion metric tons, almost all, or more than 91%, by trucks, according to the Japan Trucking Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s a fraction of what’s moving in a massive country like the U.S. About 5.2 trillion ton-miles of freight are transported in the United States each year, and that’s projected to reach more than 8 trillion ton-miles of freight by 2050. A ton-mile measures the amount of freight shipped and how far it\u2019s moved, with the standard unit being one ton being moved one mile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n