Trucking's uneasy relationship with new tech
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Re: Trucking's uneasy relationship with new tech
#2Shameless Plug: I am building Proma.ai and one of the use cases we are pursuing is trucking freight operations management. I would love to chat with others in this space - both builders and buyers.
Re: Trucking's uneasy relationship with new tech
#3In the same note of tech in trucking, the large truck manufactures have started 'John Deere-ing' their equipment and making more electronically integrated, non user replicable, non-standard parts.
The newer parts typically are lighter, which means less fuel usage and room for actual cargo. At the same time, if the part breaks in 100,000 miles and costs an arm and a leg to replace the owner/operator doesn't gain anything but paying the manufacture more of an ownership tax.
Re: Trucking's uneasy relationship with new tech
#4The future of trucking probably involves neither truckers and nor any fuel. Battery electric trucks are already taking over. And autonomous driving trucks without a driver seems like it is a matter of time. That eliminates the two most expensive cost factors in trucking.
Of course this won't happen overnight. But it will probably be happening faster than some might expect. Cost saving potential is going to be the main reason. Trucks use a lot of fuel, and at the rate they are using it, it adds up to quite a lot of money. Tens of thousands of dollar per year. 50K$ is fairly average. The only thing more expensive is the driver. Getting rid of both, adds up to meaningful savings.
Re: Trucking's uneasy relationship with new tech
#5The future of trucking probably involves neither truckers and nor any fuel. Battery electric trucks are already taking over. And autonomous driving trucks without a driver seems like it is a matter of time. That eliminates the two most expensive cost factors in trucking. Of course this won't happen overnight. But it will probably be happening faster than some might expect. Cost saving potential is going to be the mai…
Is the electricity meaningfully cheaper?
Re: Trucking's uneasy relationship with new tech
#6The future of trucking probably involves neither truckers and nor any fuel. Battery electric trucks are already taking over. And autonomous driving trucks without a driver seems like it is a matter of time. That eliminates the two most expensive cost factors in trucking. Of course this won't happen overnight. But it will probably be happening faster than some might expect. Cost saving potential is going to be the mai…
Within a margin of error, yeah.
LTL (Less than load) will probably still have human drivers for high value time sensitive materials, but most things should be loaded onto a train and hauled close to their destination where a short truck can pick up from the train yard and haul the last few miles to the customer.
Of course, if we spent the money to build a few high speed cross country trains we could save so much money and reduce the environmental impact of thousands of 18 wheelers and their exhaust and tires and highway damage.
We would need 5 of them, one from Maine to Washington, one from Atlanta to Los Angeles, one from Los Angeles to Seattle, one from Miami to Bangor, Maine, and one from McAllen to Winnipeg, CA.
It's be a great way to spend $250 billion dollars and would make so many people wealthy and improve the lives of all Americans and many non-Americans in measurable ways.
Re: Trucking's uneasy relationship with new tech
#7The future of trucking probably involves neither truckers and nor any fuel. Battery electric trucks are already taking over. And autonomous driving trucks without a driver seems like it is a matter of time. That eliminates the two most expensive cost factors in trucking. Of course this won't happen overnight. But it will probably be happening faster than some might expect. Cost saving potential is going to be the mai…
Is the electricity meaningfully cheaper?
Yes.
Re: Trucking's uneasy relationship with new tech
#8The future of trucking probably involves neither truckers and nor any fuel. Battery electric trucks are already taking over. And autonomous driving trucks without a driver seems like it is a matter of time. That eliminates the two most expensive cost factors in trucking. Of course this won't happen overnight. But it will probably be happening faster than some might expect. Cost saving potential is going to be the mai…
I wonder if we will see trucker on self driving truck violence during the switchover. My bet is yes. I think this will be the first space where those replaced physically fight back.
Re: Trucking's uneasy relationship with new tech
#9The future of trucking probably involves neither truckers and nor any fuel. Battery electric trucks are already taking over. And autonomous driving trucks without a driver seems like it is a matter of time. That eliminates the two most expensive cost factors in trucking. Of course this won't happen overnight. But it will probably be happening faster than some might expect. Cost saving potential is going to be the mai…
Battery electric trucks aren’t ready for over over-the-road trucking. They hardly even make sense for drayage currently.
Re: Trucking's uneasy relationship with new tech
#10The future of trucking probably involves neither truckers and nor any fuel. Battery electric trucks are already taking over. And autonomous driving trucks without a driver seems like it is a matter of time. That eliminates the two most expensive cost factors in trucking. Of course this won't happen overnight. But it will probably be happening faster than some might expect. Cost saving potential is going to be the mai…
Within a margin of error, yeah. LTL (Less than load) will probably still have human drivers for high value time sensitive materials, but most things should be loaded onto a train and hauled close to their destination where a short truck can pick up from the train yard and haul the last few miles to the customer. Of course, if we spent the money to build a few high speed cross country trains we could save so much mone…
The U.S. has the best freight rail system in the world, it passenger rail sucks. Why spend money on freight rail?