what does the future holds

I wouldn’t expect to much change to fast. Even with the production of nikola or the Tesla truck, they require a huge infrastructure rebuild that will take many years to accommodate those types of energy for regular business.

 

Truck drivers will go the way of buggy whip makers ... they will be no more. Sounds good to me , ready to learn other trades , jobs , postions , skills etc. Onwards and opwards.

 

Right sure we will, and then we'll get jobs driving the ambulances for the people the driverless trucks keep running over.

 

The "technological advances" as you so nicely put it will never stop, they get electric trucks, they'll think of something else they want to try. I personally don't see electric trucks this century, we just simply don't have the infrastructure to produce that much juice. Hydrogen trucks i dont see happening ever, admittedly i dont know much about them but anybody who's ever heard of the Hindenburg can imagine why it's a bad idea.

 

Just imagine all the trucks in this country trying to drive themselves down the highway with the stupid stuff you see everyday around you driving down the road.

 

Since trucking is 90 percent small business (20 trucks or less) and 97 percent (6 trucks or less), they are all going to pay the drivers and spend extra money on the cost of self driving trucks until trucking utopia arrives. Trucking is such a high profit margin as it is.

Trucks will run 24/7 since all shippers and receivers are open 24/7, insurance companies will gladly accept the liability of a truck trying to navigate narrow streets that aren’t meant for trucks, trucks that have to back on a dock and stick out in the road since the trailers are 53 foot and not 40 feet anymore like in my job’s case. Shippers will accept the liability for product condition since the truck will drive perfectly,(coils anyone)? I constantly have to move product after each stop so it doesn’t fall, so the Luddite arm will come into play along with reasoning ability.

The self driving truck will just know how to back under a trailer that’s dropped too low or high, how to secure doors with a broken latch, how to barely reverse against the dock to get the clamp to release, how to slide the tandems back to be able to move the wedged wheel chock. It will know how to spot a leaking hub, tell a mudflap is ripped and fix it, it will know how to get on level ground so the doors will get square to shut again, and it will have a Luddite arm with a hammer to beat the handle back in when it can’t quite shut. It will perform very well figuring out locations in gravel parking lots, and shippers will spend tons of money to accommodate their electronic shortcomings, we all know shippers always fix things.

It will hear the air leak on the service hose and fix it, air up flats without the TPMS system (Luddite arm again) replace its fuse when the clearance lights won’t come on, wedge the plug to make all the lights work or spread the pin, it will read and check the DOT paperwork and verify the current inspection. It will be able to back into any spot with precision because it’s covered in sensors, and we all know nothing ever hits trailers and knocks things off right? Then there’s the 70-80% distrust rate of autonomous vehicles, two lane roads, unmarked lanes, constructions zone, re-routing on the spot for wrecks driving through the median into oncoming traffic to get to an exit, or being directed to go the opposite way down an entrance ramp to circumvent an interstate shutdown.

I could keep going but the self driving truck will already be here next week, and I need to go file for unemployment.