In The Netherlands, not far from the Scania premises in Zwolle, the first platooning test was executed, with the Dutch Traffic-minister and a number of members of the European Parliament as witnesses.
Scania showed a platoon of three trucks which did it’s job wthout a problem on a usually crowded motorway which connects the north of The Netherlands with the south. The trucks kept a distnace betwee each opther of 1,3 seconds. Such a distance is still quite significant and it won’t lead to very specatucalr decrease in fuel consumotion and CO2-output. Yet, it is a start to see if this technology works in practice and it very much does.
The Dutch have crowded motorways as one haulage company operating 800 trucks and a supermarket chain proved. Together, they think that right now, about twenty percent of their transport operations are suitable for platooning, which would generate tremendous savings. Also, the Dutch are convinced that platooning is effective with Long and Heavy Vehicle combinations. The Dutch Minister is in favour of more tests and legislation allowing platooning.