Are OTR drivers are on the short list for elimination?

Yes, drivers can be replaced by current technology available. Yes, there are systems in place to identify who is liable. Yes, there is a means to secure cargo and to prevent theft. The main issue is getting all of the systems integrated. 3 to 5 years is too short a time period to accomplish that. Probably more like 10+ years.

 

You're not seeing the whole picture.

There is an account that runs from Manitowoc, WI to Carlisle, PA and back. 780 miles one way, drop loaded in the yard, hook to the return, put inbound bills in one mail box, grab new bills out of the other. A driver can make two full turns a week and there are about 20 drivers on the account. The automated truck can make the turn in under 30 hours, call it 4 turns a week. Truck pulls on the lot and stops in a designated pull through. A yard jockey takes care of spotting the trailer, fueling and rehooking before parking the vehicle in the outbound spot. That eliminates 20 drivers and 6 trucks.

Assume replacing trucks every 5 years. A 2027 Cascadia sleeper costs $200,000. Over 5 years the account will spend $4 million on trucks. Day cabs are $180,000. Take a day cab, increase the fuel tanks to dual 150 gallons and add the automated stuff - let's say it's $250k a truck. With 20 'normal' trucks the carrier would be paying $4 million in equipment costs. With the automated, only $3.5 million. As long as the automation is no more $80,000 than a 'normal' truck, the company is money ahead on equipment.

They would need to have additional yard jockeys on site. Let's assume a total of 12, each working 40 hours a week and making $30 an hour. Add 6 employees who are standing by to remote pilot the trucks. Call it $1.5 million in wages. If the drivers were making $80,000 a year, total labor cost would be a little over $2 million, so there's a savings of at least $500,000 - probably more because they could be assigned other duties when a truck wasn't actively needing attention.

Even the most anti-AI calculations show a profit to switching to automated trucks. Once the technology works. Search my posts about ETAI - it's dumb as heck, any experienced driver can easily out perform it, but it's making Schneider money.

LA to Chicago is about 2,000 miles. Assuming $40 an hour for the local drivers and 70 cpm for the otr. 5 hours each at pick up and delivery - $400. 2,000 miles at 70 cpm is $1,400. $1,000 will cover a lot of inefficiencies - extra miles to a terminal, paying for a fuel attendant along the way, etc. Most cross country freight that isn't time sensitive has migrated to intermodal. It's cheaper to truck freight from Ft Wayne, IN to Chicago and put it on the rails to Atlanta, then truck it to La Grange, GA than it is to send it direct. What AI trucks promise is intermodal without the trains.

 

Autonomous trucks?

The ambulance chasers are gonna have a guuuuuuuddd tiiiiimme -- when things go wrong....& go wrong -- they will.

 

I still can't get over/past the comment (made earlier in this thread, thanks @TripleSix !) about Swift redirecting their truck traffic to the Dragon....while part of I-40 was closed....





-- L

 

I had friends that pulled flats out of their terminal in GreerSC. The travel agent sees US 129 and when 40 closed, they routed truck through the Dragon. It’s a US highway…how bad can it be?

 

So the truck driver isn’t cranking landing gear? Isn’t connecting/disconnecting air and electrical lines? Isn’t inspecting the unit? Yeah ok. Smh


How much does a company in Texas save? How tf would i know? Did ask them?




Funny how 30-40 years ago the argument was had about computers putting everybody out of work. Turns out you still need people to work the computers, maintain the computers, put info into the computers, etc…


Tinfoil hats will never go out of style.

 

Sounds like you've done quite some research. How do autonomous trucks navigate high winds? Also, how do autonomous trucks figure they need to move a lane to the left when another truck is making a right turn onto the on ramp and will get to the freeway by the time the autonomous truck will be directly next to it?

 

Your post I quoted said nothing about hooking and unhooking the trailers. You mentioned load securement and things of that nature, which the shippers are already doing on the drop/hook accounts now that are picked up sealed.

I doubt autonomous trucks would be going shipper ti receiver. A more likely scenario would be local/regional drivers running in and out if a hub while autonomous trucks run hub to hub on a fixed route. So to answer your new questions about hooking and unhooking trailers the company could easily have a person available to that at their hubs.