Japan wants to build a 500 km conveyor belt system to address truck driver shortage

Those who have traveled abroad are surely impressed by the efficiency of staff and machinery at airports in handling hundreds to thousands of bags in a day. Now, imagine the same system, but over a longer distance.

Yes, that is one of the solutions being proposed by the Japanese Ministry of Transport in an effort to address the increasingly acute shortage of truck drivers each year. According to Japan News, a system called Autoflow Road, or simply a conveyor belt system, will be built to connect Tokyo and Osaka over 500 km for the purpose of distributing cargo.

This conveyor belt system can be built adjacent to existing main roads or using underground routes. With continuous operation every day, theoretically, this system can handle the same cargo delivery capacity made by 25,000 truck drivers in a day.

As previously reported, Japan is expected to face a shortage of up to 36 percent of the workforce needed to handle 1.40 billion tons of cargo by 2030. By potentially reducing up to 25,000 trucks from the roads, it may help alleviate traffic congestion, reduce emission levels, and mitigate the impact of the labor shortage crisis.

The use of a conveyor belt system is not unfamiliar, as Japan itself already uses a similar method to transport limestone over 23 km. The main challenge, of course, is the construction cost.

According to a study conducted by a construction company, the cost of building an underground tunnel starts from ¥7 billion (RM204 million) and could reach up to ¥80 billion (RM2.3 billion) for every 10 km. Therefore, the total cost of building a system connecting Tokyo and Osaka could potentially reach up to ¥3.7 trillion (RM108.2 billion)!