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The Daily Dash: Truck drivers are speeding up; autonomous truck maker ditching the driver

As the world slowed, trucks got faster. Data shows that as fewer cars traveled the roadways in 2020, truck drivers started driving faster than ever. (Photo: JIm Allen/FreightWaves)

The Daily Dash is a quick look at what is happening in the freight ecosystem. In today’s edition, as the holidays approached, truck drivers found less traffic on roadways than in past years, and that means speeds are going up. Plus, Gatik plans to remove drivers from its vehicles in 2021 and New Year’s resolutions for fleets looking to reduce their risk.

Faster, faster and faster still

As the world slowed, trucks got faster. Data shows that as fewer cars traveled the roadways in 2020, truck drivers started driving faster than ever.

Brian Straight has the details: As traffic declined, truck speeds increased

Ditch the driver

Autonomous trucking company Gatik plans to deploy vehicles without any drivers next year in a pilot program with Walmart.


Linda Baker has more on the program: Gatik bids adieu to safety drivers in fully driverless Walmart pilot

New Year’s risk reduction

Reducing fleet risk is a priority for most, but how to accomplish that goal is more complicated.

Brian Straight explains: 5 New Year’s resolutions to reduce your fleet risk in 2021

Safer than ever?

Truck makers began adding collision avoidance and automatic emergency braking in earnest as part of advanced driver assistance systems for the 2018 model year. Those trucks are now starting to hit the used market.


Alan Adler reports on their likely impact on roadway safety: Tech-enabled used truck trade-ins could boost road safety

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Report: Amazon generated 465M pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2019

FitzMark acquires Fetch Logistics; third deal of 2020


Did you miss this?

FreightWaves hosted the North American Supply Chain Summit on Tuesday, with a focus on how the supply chain survived 2020, what challenges await in 2021, and trends to watch for over the next five years.

FreightWaves staff has the coverage: North American Supply Chain Summit

Hammer down, everyone,

Brian Straight

Managing Editor

Click for more FreightWaves articles by Brian Straight.

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Brian Straight

Brian Straight leads FreightWaves' Modern Shipper brand as Managing Editor. A journalism graduate of the University of Rhode Island, he has covered everything from a presidential election, to professional sports and Little League baseball, and for more than 10 years has covered trucking and logistics. Before joining FreightWaves, he was previously responsible for the editorial quality and production of Fleet Owner magazine and fleetowner.com. Brian lives in Connecticut with his wife and two kids and spends his time coaching his son’s baseball team, golfing with his daughter, and pursuing his never-ending quest to become a professional bowler. You can reach him at bstraight@freightwaves.com.