Commercial Heavy Equipment Training (CHET) announced Monday it has been selected as a training partner for government funded Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) research project on City Logistics for the Urban Economy (CLUE).

CLUE aims to fill gaps in the Canadian urban freight system and the goal is to uncover more data and improve analytical tools to help understand effects on freight flows, supply chains, and infrastructure needs.

CLUE is a research program of the Smart Freight Centre, a multi-university, multi-sector partnership working strategically to address the identified knowledge gaps.

“It is really an honor for CHET to participate in a project funded by the federal government where we are the only training academy selected,” said Philip Fletcher, operations manager of CHET, a Mississauga, Ont.-based truck driving school.

Safe interactions

The initiative includes 24 separate research projects that relate to different areas of the trucking industry and the associated data and metrics. Topics range from driver training to automated delivery of goods. The project CHET is most involved in is the “Safer Interactions Between Trucks and Vulnerable Road Users” project in partnership with the Smart Freight Centre.

“Goods movement hasn’t been studied as extensively as people movement but interest is growing as it becomes clear just how much we rely on an efficient goods movement system,” said Dr. Judy Farvolden, executive director of the University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute). “CLUE addresses issues of significance to Canadians and this collaboration of public and industry partners further strengthens our chances of success.”

More than $3 million in NSERC funding has been matched by contributions from other supporting institutions and partners, including CHET’s parent company, Musket Transport, for a total of more than $11 million in direct and in-kind support.