Safety while handling trailers

Abstract: Road transportation grew by 3.3 % per year over the past ten years which is faster than the economic growth of 2.3 % per year. European Commission plans for an increase of 55 % for road transportation between 2000 and 2020. This growth puts pressure on current trucking industry considering fuel consumption, emissions of green house gases, and traffic congestion.  High demand logistics industry and current pressure creates trends towards flexibility and longer vehicle combinations for efficiency and to reduce the number of engines on roads, challenging the current coupling methods of the trailers.  Primary method called 5th wheel coupling comes from a similar coupling used on 4 wheel horse-drawn carriages of the 19th century which is reliable in terms of attaching truck and trailer but has significant safety, efficiency and comfort issues for driver and the vehicles-people around.  So what if hauling setup could be safer and smarter?