Today,have a carrier told me that he switched to driving a taxi, and his income is now higher than before. Moreover, many cross-border taxi routes have higher prices than truck transport. I jokingly said that human life is more valuable than the price of freight.
RATES what is going on
- Thread starter H.Jordan
- Start date
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That's been happening with U.S. independents for quite a while now. They make more money taking the wife's Dodge Caravan on an Uber gig than they do working their tractor-trailers.
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Don't worry.. those T/T guys can rest assured that Uber has its claws in freight too.. more so with each passing day.
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Their goal ultimately is driverless trucks ... driverless taxis. It's convenient to use but much like Amazon, it's the root of all evil.
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Y'all can wrap your heads around this ....
When, not if, all trucks become driverless, why does the industry need trucking companies ?!?!?!?!
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Trucking companies sometimes must ask, why does the industry need freight brokers?
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When driverless trucks come, there is no more need for a trucking company. Freightliner, Volvo, and Volkswagen will own all the rolling stock.
(If you need a "technical vehicle" you'll have to go to Toyota for that ... Google it)
The shipper simply fires up the app on their cell phone, and places a reservation on the truck manufacturers website. The manufacturer sends the truck out to do the job. Done and done.
(If you need a "technical vehicle" you'll have to go to Toyota for that ... Google it)
The shipper simply fires up the app on their cell phone, and places a reservation on the truck manufacturers website. The manufacturer sends the truck out to do the job. Done and done.
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It would be insanely irresponsible for a government to ever approve driverless trucks. Would put so many people out of a job essentially overnight.
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I disagree. First, the manufacturers don't want their capital tied up in it. Second, it will be the job of transportation/logistics companies to 'solution-sell' rather than 'service-sell'. The larger integrated providers all work on a solution sell, don't be fooled in thinking it's a pure rate game because it's not.
The 3PLs that broker freight will still do it to trucking companies that will just operate differently. I think for some things without drivers, but ultimately not for everything. I guess we'll see how this all pans out.
But manufacturers wanting to control the fleets - absolutely no way. Not with transport trucks, not with passenger vehicles either.
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Think about that for a second. What is the one common problem all driverless vehicles have today?
The answer is simple ... humans !!!
Take the human out of the equation and accidents literally go away.
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The one problem that doesn't exist now is all those drivers going on welfare all at once.
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Maybe at some point but Tesla self driving has killed more than one idiot that went to sleep while it drove. Final mile deliveries, jobsites etc will need drivers for a long time to come IMHO. OTR maybe 10-15 years some driverless but for the most part doubt I will still be in the racket when it all finally comes into play on a large scale.
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Full self drive isn't until we are at the point of Tier 5 Autonomous. The most advanced cars are on 3, some new cars being introduced are Tier 4 capable but need to wait until they are legally cleared to do so.
The problem with Tesla is mainly in calling it Auto Pilot. It's an invitation for people to be stupid.
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I'm still skeptical on there ever being a real "driver-less" solution for Trucking. A hybrid model might be the one that gets adopted for the reasons most have mentioned already (final mile, driver assist, LTL etc) and to add the liability (bet insurance companies are not thrilled about having to insure vehicles that can potentially be involved in a collision and not have someone liable since its just microchips and code). Instead of calling them "auto pilot" features they should be called "drive assist" features, to work along side a human driver to take the stress out of driving. Technically speaking a passenger car with auto lane keep assist, automatic cruise control, forward collision warning/mitigation, cross traffic alert is pretty much self driving already but they still require you to be behind the wheel to navigate and step in to take over. Simply put If the airline/air cargo industry is not yet ready to have "Fully autonomous flying planes" go up in the air (with less variables like pedestrians, passenger cars, other commercial vehicles etc.) I don't think trucking is ready by a long shot.
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Whoa ... when was the last time you flew? There are numerous airports in North America and Europe that support autonomous landing, as well as several new generation passenger jets that are hands off during the landing process. Take-off's are also machine-assisted. once airborne all the pilot has to do is sit there ready to take over the airplane if it gets hit by lightning and the computers reset, however that is exceptionally rare. Airliners already do fancy things like route themselves around thunderstorms, find the most fuel efficient routes and altitudes, etc. ... pretty much everything except serve coffee and tea ... LOL
As for trucking, no, we'll never be completely autonomous. However, the "Long Haul" portions will, without a doubt, become autonomous. Final mile will eventually be handled by autonomous vehicles and robot operators.
A very good friend of mine has been in robotics his entire life. He was a team leader for the crew that designed and built the Tesla plant in California.
We had a conversation one about the ails of the world. His response was quite simple ... Climate change is not our immediate concern, It's AI. Already within the industry robots are building robots ... just look at the modern auto assembly plant.
So I, with all the wisdom I could muster, said "So, Skynet is real?"
He just snickered, nodded in the affirmative, and moved the conversation to a different subject.
