September 5, 2018 Vol. 15 No. 18

Three important reports have surfaced in the last couple of weeks, and each of them merits your attention. One of them is especially interesting, namely an in-depth look at the impact of autonomous trucks on driving jobs. Jointly commissioned by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education (Labor Center) and Working Partnerships USA, its title is “Driverless? Autonomous Trucks and the Future of the American Trucker”.

Written by Dr. Steve Viscelli, a sociologist and trucking expert at the University of Pennsylvania, it suggests that driverless trucks could replace many of the nation’s best long-distance trucking jobs, while shifting the industry towards more low-wage ‘gig’ jobs. Viscelli says that without the right public policy decisions, eroding job quality should be as serious a concern as job loss.

Back to that in a minute.

One of the other reports is the 2018 Annual Fleet Fuel Study, released by the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE). It examined in some detail the fuel-use performance of the same 20 fleets studied in 2017, two of them Canadian (Bison and Challenger). They operate more than 71,844 tractors and 236,292 trailers and they saved over $600 million in 2017 compared to the average trucks on the road. By use of some 85 different fuel-saving technologies, these fleets reached an average fuel economy of 7.28 mpg compared to the average U.S. fleet number of 5.91 mpg. This was a 2% increase over 2017 and represents a return to the 2% eight-year average gain.

And the third report, the result of a proprietary survey, comes from  global telematics software provider Teletrac Navman. Its Telematics Benchmark Report: U.S. Edition, had responses from more than 2400 fleet professionals and found that technology adoption is at an all-time high with 77% using telematics for vehicle tracking. Yes, but it also says most fleets are only scratching the surface of technology’s potential. We kinda knew that.

DRIVERLESS TRUCKS STEALING JOBS? Bearing in mind that the UC Berkeley study is dealing with U.S. circumstances only, it says that without action from policymakers, driverless trucks are projected to eliminate some of America’s best trucking jobs. This is the first in-depth study of how autonomous trucks could be adopted by specific segments of the industry and affect wages and working conditions.

Canada is different, and I think that our unique geography, weather, and commercial density mean that some of the conclusions reached by report writer Dr. Steve Viscelli are less applicable here. Autonomous trucks would not do well on many of our highways — think two lanes in winter. That aside, he projects that under the adoption scenario that leading technology firms are working towards, autonomous trucks would primarily handle long-distance highway driving while human drivers navigate local streets.