THE LAST WORD Technology Gains and Losses
By Paul Enos Guest Writer
I couldn’t make it to Las Vegas on
May 6, when Daimler Trucks tested their autonomous driving software on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I sent our Member Relations Director Kim Yaeger to the press conference and demon- stration. While she was in Las
Vegas, I was at a board meeting of the Hays Truck Museum, currently in a ware- house while money is raised for a new museum wing. We were looking at trucks ranging from a 1903 Knox to a 1979 cab over Ford. The industry has changed
a lot since 1903, and as evi- denced with the first driver- less truck, that change will continue. I think about what other impacts this technology will have in the future. Will it reduce the need to build new roads due to increased capacity through the uniform speeds of driverless cars? Will zero fatalities be an achievable goal? Will the industry see our first productivity gains in a genera- tion when one driver can now move 3 trucks? The technology has the ability to solve the issue of an aging industry
that can’t find enough drivers to fill all of our trucks, but what will we lose? It amazes me how many people my
age and under can’t drive a stick shift—a skill that has been lost through automa- tion. What skills are our drivers going
Will computers make that premedita- tion obsolete? It’s going to be an interesting time
rivaling 1935, when the Motor Carrier Act was passed, the formation of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s and the subsequent deregula- tion of industry in 1980. There were winners and losers, both broadly and in our industry with each change. I don’t think resisting
this change to autonomous trucks is going to be an option that results in success. Just look at the companies that didn’t change their model after deregulation: P.I.E. and Consolidated Freight are among the companies that are gone. On a macro scale, it has been great for the economy, reducing the average cost of transportation built into a product from 25 percent to 7 percent or less, but I know many older drivers who say that it has hurt the strength of the industry. An old Confucius proverb/curse states, “May you
to be losing? Will the next generation of truck drivers be less proficient at back- ing up and docking because they won’t need those skillsets? Are we going to lose the skillset that requires drivers to plan their movement ten steps ahead?
live in interesting times.” For trucking, those times are now.
Paul J. Enos serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Nevada Trucking Association and a lobbyist for the trucking industry.
Opinions expressed on this page may not reflect official policies or opinions of the Arkansas Trucking Association or the American Trucking Associations.
54 ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 3 2015
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