Amazing visions of future transport unveiled

Underground freight pods, driverless motorways, and automatically recharging electric cars are all part of a thoughtful and insightful report on the future of transport and logistics produced by the Chartered Institute for Logistics and Transport (CILT).

New technology could fundamentally alter the transport and logistics landscape over the next 25 years, according to this far-seeing new report.

The Vision 2035 document produced by the CILT outlines a wide range of predicted trends and potentially disruptive factors on the horizon, with technology among those at the fore.

The report envisages intelligent highways (as seen in Hollywood movies such as iRobot). This could deliver a spine of inter-regional automated highway lanes, segregated for freight and car traffic.

Effectively vehicles would drive themselves before reverting to manual control for the last leg of the journey.

The report even imagines underground freight pods, which have been suggested as a way of removing freight from roads by developing dedicated underground freight pipelines.

Cargo would be moved in lightweight pods. Powered by electric linear induction motors, these pods could run at up to 50km/h and carry up to 8/10t.

CILT also sees the development of smart grids, which aims to optimise energy supply by supplying electricity as and when it is needed to certain applications as a crucial enabler for greater use of electric vehicles.

“A new smart battery recharging infrastructure would be part of this vision, enabling cars to be charged automatically from roadside cables via electromagnetic fields when parked above a charging plate,” says the report.

Perhaps closer to the present day, the CILT noted the emergence of CAD-CAM technologies, could lead to a decentralising trend in manufacturing with attendant implications for the supply chain.

The report also predicts social networking could be used “to drive more efficient and effective supply chains” allowing consumers much greater product and price selectivity.

Online choices taking account of the end-to-end carbon footprint of the supply chain when making purchasing decisions are also expected to come more commonplace.

The CILT predicts a much greater variety of options (both technological and approach) aimed at making the last mile of delivery more efficient to emerge and spread. These include powered cycles, electric vehicles, community buses & trams, out of peak hours deliveries, autonomous automated taxis, and drop boxes.

You can read the full Vision 2035 report from CILT here: http://tinyurl.com/ak2ynq