Abstract This paper presents a generalized description of linear transport processes that allows for a derivation of common dynamic properties and a control layout for a wide set of applications. Based on the introduction of the system description of platoons and a proposition of suitable performance criteria a control layout is formulated which reduces the synchronization of a common motion of sub-systems to a stabilization problem of the platoon and optimizes the corresponding performance measures. Furthermore, the influence of communication topology and switching information access among platoon members is investigated. The proposed approach is applied to a vehicle platoon with one leading and three following vehicles and is analyzed through both simulations and physical experiments with model scale vehicles. The results show that the approach is also applicable to physical plants that can only be approximated by a linear platoon model.