F-LINE, which handles logistics for six processed food manufacturers, announced on October 30th that it will participate in the commercial operation of trunk line transportation using autonomous trucks, which T2 launched in Japan this year, starting in November.
<Representative products from the 6 companies>
We transport various goods for Ajinomoto, Kagome, Nisshin Oillio Group, Nisshin Flour Milling Wellna, House Foods Group Headquarters, and Mizkan between the Kanto and Kansai regions.
Starting November 20th, regular service will begin on the approximately 510km section from Ayase Smart IC (Kanagawa Prefecture) to Suita IC (Osaka Prefecture) as an automated driving section for F-LINE's "Kawasaki Logistics Center" (Kanagawa Prefecture) and "Nishinomiya Logistics Center" (Hyogo Prefecture).
The transport is planned to include seasonings such as umami seasonings, tomato ketchup, and ponzu sauce, as well as cooking oil, flour, and curry roux.
<Scenes from the demonstration using F-LINE and T2>
While the domestic market for processed foods is expanding slowly, the shortage of truck drivers is becoming more serious, partly due to the "2024 problem" (a term referring to the impending end of the fiscal year 2024).
Against this backdrop, F-LINE, together with T2, which aims to launch trunk line transportation services using Level 4 autonomous trucks in 2027, has been working on demonstrations of trunk line transportation using Level 2 autonomous trucks.
In the five demonstrations conducted from February to October of this year, the effectiveness of autonomous trucks was thoroughly verified from both an operational and technological standpoint, by gradually increasing the load capacity and operating them both during the day and at night.
F-LINE, along with six other companies, has reached an agreement with T2 to participate in commercial operations and fully utilize autonomous trucks.
Based on the results of this commercial operation, we will also consider participating in trunk line transportation services using Level 4 autonomous trucks.
