The Department for Transport (DfT) has confirmed its plans to carry out an initial trial of driverless HGV fleets in the United Kingdom.

Reporting on this subject last year, AXA UK and firm Douglas MacNeil said that the UK logistics industry could save itself nearly £43 billion per year if it swapped to driverless vehicles for heavy goods purposes.

Germany has already begun testing out the vehicles in its logistics sector, as it trialled its first driverless truck on the motorway last year.

A spokesperson for the DfT said: "New technology has the potential to bring major improvements to journeys and the UK is in a unique position to lead the way for the testing of connected and driverless vehicles."

On the subject of using these vehicles for "platoons", the spokesperson continued by saying that by using the trucks in a group they would exhibit an improvement in fuel efficiency.

Giving his opinion was Mike Danby, the CEO of Advanced Supply Chain, who commented that it is "encouraging that the government is aware of driverless technology", which he says will be a solution to driver shortages and other problems.