Every trucker knows that without trucks America stops. It’s not just a slogan. To those of us who drive the trucks and physically deliver the goods that keep America running, the notion of a future with no trucks is laughable, if not impossible to imagine.
But is it really? Truck drivers use devices and information networks today that were beyond their grandparent’s ability to imagine. A future without trucks may be as close to us now as smart phones were to your grandparents when they got married.
This view of the future came to me innocently enough. My wife and I were on an expedited freight run with an urgently needed piece of medical equipment on board. Such runs are common to us. It’s what we do. But the customer’s different way of communicating with us prompted new thoughts about a new future.
Our anxious customer wanted to know our location and progress. He would normally contact our carrier’s dispatchers for that or track our truck online. That was not good enough this time. This customer wanted to talk directly to us in real time. He took dispatch out of the loop by requesting our cell phone number, calling us directly and texting us after that.
Now, let me change the subject and ask you to think about something different. We’ll get back to the medical equipment run in a few paragraphs.
When you go to the hardware store and buy a drill, is it because you want a drill or because you want a hole? If you could buy holes instead of drills, drills would cease to exist and the people who make them would be out of work.
When you go to the video store to get a movie, is it because you want to go the store or because you want to watch a movie? Movies can now be downloaded directly to customers, eliminating the need for stores. Video rentals are up, customers are happy and vacant video stores are a common sight.
When our customer called our carrier to book an expediter truck to bring a machine to a hospital where it will be used in surgery soon after it arrives, what did he want really? When he called dispatch for a progress report, what did he want really? When he called us, what did he want really?
Google has on the road right now cars that drive themselves. While they are prototypes, these real-world cars are driving safely on the same roads you and I do. If cars can drive themselves, so can trucks. And if trucks can drive themselves, the need for truck cabs and sleepers is eliminated.
Truck drivers need things like seats, windshield wipers, sleep and a paycheck. They also want to go home every now and then. Robots need none of that. Will it be trucks and drivers that move freight in the future or smart containers on wheels?
If a container can be summoned to a shipper’s location with a mouse click, what of the people who dispatch trucks today? What of the people who broker freight? What of those who own trucks, sell trucks, drive trucks, build trucks, etc.?
Diane and I are happy and successful owner-operators who live and work on the road. I fear that we are also part of a dying breed because customers don’t want trucks, they want stuff moved. If a way can be found to move freight without trucks and drivers, it will happen as surely as books will be sold without paper.
While moving freight without trucks is a lifetime or two away, a trucking industry that your grandparents could not imagine is unfolding before our eyes. The impact of technology is evident everywhere you look.
Let’s start with the trucking magazine you are reading right now. Many industry publications are online. It’s only a matter of time before they appear on e-readers too, and some already have. People don’t subscribe to magazines because they want magazines, they subscribe because they want the content. If you can download the content faster and cheaper, why bother with printed publications?
The magazines advertise electronic logging and business management programs. You need nothing more than a smart phone and the purchased apps to run them. Here again, it’s not the log books, receipts and other documents that people want. They want the information the documents contain. Why bother with printed documents when you can manage your information in more efficient and less expensive ways?
For carriers, online systems are replacing servers that used to be operated in carrier offices. Carriers don’t want IT departments. They want the communications and information management that IT departments provide. If that can be found in “the cloud” more reliably and at less cost, why bother with servers; and for that matter, why have IT departments at all?
Name any service or physical thing; the trend is the same. The desired service or thing may not be what is desired at all, and technology is rapidly rising to enhance or eliminate whatever stands between the end user and the benefit the user desires.
Behind the wheel, today’s truck drivers sit on top of a hard-wired network of sensors that feed the ECM. EOBRs connect that network to other networks outside of the truck. Smart phones connect drivers in other ways. Package truck drivers scan bar codes that go into the air. Lane departure systems monitor the truck sound alarms in the cab. GPS info streams from the dash, smart phone and Qualcomm dome. It’s not the driver but the truck that maintains the speed when the cruise control is set, and turns on the brake lights when the pedal is pushed.
It’s all coming together to produce a future that strains the imagination, but imagine we should. While it is true today that without trucks America stops, how long will it be before people say, without robotic power units and standardized smart containers America stops?
