The autonomous vehicle (AV) niche is gaining momentum, with incumbent automakers and high-profile startups pushing pilot vehicles on public roads and testing their technology to improve self-driving capabilities. In the commercial context, the trucking mid-mile segment might become one of the early adopters of this technology as trucks can encounter less traffic when hauling freight across interstates and highways.
While this would mean that fleets in the mid-mile segment could considerably reduce their operational costs, it also could lead to the exodus of truck drivers.
“Though the technology will have to be perfected, if a truck can run without a human operator, then it theoretically could operate 24 hours a day, with the only downtime being for fuel. There would be no hours-of-service requirements and it’s also a lot safer,” said Justin King, senior vice president of product and innovation of North America trucking for Comdata. “There would be tremendous cost savings potentially, making this technology huge for the trucking industry.”
When autonomous technology becomes commercially viable, it would also impact fleet insurance rates as driverless vehicles are expected to be a lot safer on the road than human-driven vehicles. An Accenture report states that auto insurance premiums could fall by nearly $25 billion by 2035 — equivalent to 12.5% of the total market.
Though AVs will spin off a dedicated insurance segment, estimates show that the annual insurance revenue loss due to AVs will exceed the new segment’s gain.
While discussing the impact of self-driving vehicles, it is also crucial to look at the negation of the human element of trucking and the economic and regulatory challenges that can build up against such technology. For governments, regulating autonomous driving technology is tricky. While it promises safer roads and a drastic reduction in logistics costs, it could displace millions of truck drivers, a conundrum with which authorities struggle.
“Though there would be regulatory headwinds to AVs, I think this would go down in phases. Right now we’re in the testing phase, where there are clearly several models of autonomous trucks made by several companies that are being test-driven on roads. But they come with operators who are in the cab to take over when the vehicle does not do something right or is stuck in a situation,” said King.
Still, an AV learns in every mile it courses through — be it real life or simulation. King believes AVs will be able to drive on their own without intervention by the next decade.
For Comdata, the disruption caused by AVs from a fueling perspective is of interest. “The question is how do we enable the fuel transaction when the vehicle is driverless? Today, trucks pull up at the gas station and get fueled by someone, and there also is a physical plastic card swipe. But with AVs, we need to think about contactless and location-based payment,” said King.
Technology around contactless payment has been flourishing as well. Last year, German banking major Commerzbank announced a collaborative effort with Daimler Trucks on developing a blockchain-based payment solution that automates machine-to-machine (M2M) transactions. If proven successful, this technology can bridge the gap of manual fueling and fuel cards, allowing machines to interact seamlessly without hassle.
“We think the future is disruptive to what we see in the industry today. It’s not just the carriers and fuel card companies that are facing change. For instance, how are the truck stops going to adapt to AVs? We would not need as many truck stops in an autonomous driving world, which can completely change amenities and service models,” said King.
As technology disrupts practices, the industry must follow its cue and adapt to change. King contended that the industry stakeholders are brushing off the inevitable, not looking to change processes until disruption is upon them.
“Everything is happening so fast, and the future is going to be electric and autonomous. It is time the industry thinks of its future a lot more aggressively than it is at the moment,” he said.
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Ali
Drivers you better open your eyes,before Covid road work consisted of moving barrels onto the travel lanes then back off now after Covid there is heavy interstate road construction going on massively. What do you think there doing,there making a lane just for the driverless trucks. While we were chasing miles trying to make a living the D.O.T ask the general public to give suggestions on how to fast track these driverless trucks,a battery was being invented to solar charge the driverless truck,these trucks were being invented quicker than driverless cars and new warehouses were being built or up dated to accommodate the new automotive industry that would load and unload using robots and automation to load or unload the driverless trucks. All this has been secretly going on behind our backs. When these trucks are hauling the freight “They” will be done with us meanwhile we continue to sit,watch and wait for the great lay off of workers in history. Drivers not only are lanes being constructed but thousands of towers went up and look at all the sensors being installed. Trump pushed all this and by passed the red tape of approval.
Jeffrey Luce
We would be fools to think this will never come, but I think its a lot further off than the industry estimates. Its taken Tesla 5 years just to break into the market. It will take along time for fully autonomous to come to fruition and when it does a lot of the loading and unloading will still be human. There will be markets that machines can’t efficiently duplicate the services, so there will always be truck drivers.
Ali
Take a look at the newly built buildings that contain the new automation systems to load and unload. Look at the decrease in truck stops and in general parking. Your wrong this change is coming at us like a freight train and everyone keeps saying not in my life time,how about 5-7 years that’s your life time.
Cory Hanna
Never going to happen or work to many variables. How will it tarp and chain a load? How will it back into docks? How will it slide tandems? How will it react to a deer or car coming out in front of it? How will it adapt to snow and ice? How will it dump a load? How will it unload a tanker? How will it chain it’s tires! Basically you would still need a driver somewhat and also the first time it kills a family by running them over because of a glitch it will be over!