Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.
In a hotel ballroom in Atlanta today, Danny Hefner stood before a panel of the nation's top motor carrier safety officials to express concern about the possible deployment of highly automated commercial vehicles.
Last October's 120-mile beer run of a self-driving Otto truck for brewery titan Anheuser-Busch InBev "as a citizen, put me off," Hefner said. Noting the driver was in the sleeper cab for the entire trip, Hefner wondered what would happen, in a similar scenario, if a self-driving truck suffered equipment failure such as a blown tire? Would the system be properly designed and programmed to adjust to a crisis with no human available to take the wheel to make a split-second decision, he asked?
Hefner also worried about the potential of cyber-terrorists hacking into an interconnected network to override the computer and telematics systems of 80,000-pound trucks motoring through traffic at 60 miles per hour. Besides the obvious risk to life and limb, Hefner said a single hack could wreak havoc with a large chunk of the nation's road infrastructure.
Hefner is no layperson. He is the safety director of MCO Transport Inc., a truckload, drayage and specialized carrier and warehouse concern based in Wilmington, N.C. He has also been a commercial driver, logging 1.3 million miles behind the wheel.
Hefner's comments underscore the daunting task facing federal and state safety officials as they start down what promises to be a long and winding road to balance technology, commercial, and safety issues stemming from the development of driverless commercial vehicles. The panel, which included Daphne Jefferson, deputy administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator (FMCSA); Jack Van Steenburg, FMCSA's assistant administrator and chief safety officer; and Larry W. Minor, the agency's associate administrator for policy, were in listen-only mode, acknowledging they are climbing the same learning curve as the operators they regulate.
"We are not here to impede progress," Jefferson told those in attendance and others viewing the proceedings via a webcast, "But to (proceed) alongside the development as it moves forward."
The government has created five levels of vehicle autonomy, ranging from "Level 0," where no operational functions are automated, to "Level 4," where the driver directs the vehicle where to go, and then relinquishes control. At that level, vehicles can be operated unoccupied, perform all safety-critical driving functions, and continuously monitor roadway conditions.
For the foreseeable future, Level 3 appears to be the most realistic objective for industry and regulators to focus on. At that level, drivers can, at their discretion, turn over control of all safety-critical functions under certain traffic or environmental conditions. However, drivers are expected to remain in the vehicle and to be ready to take over its operation if necessary.
Among the issues raised at the FMCSA "listening session" were who would be liable in the event of an accident involving an autonomous vehicle; how to combat driver boredom and ensure alertness during what could be long hours of inactivity in the passenger seat or in the sleeper area; and whether federal regulations that set limitations on a driver's hours of service should be modified to account for drivers not being behind the wheel for extended periods.
Richard Bishop, a former official at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and head of a Baltimore-based consultancy bearing his name, said there would be greater private-sector IT investment at Level 3 compliance if hours-of-service rules were adjusted.
Bishop, whose firm is working on a driverless-car study for the state of Florida, told the panel there is a "huge amount that's common" in the development and implementation of autonomous car and truck technologies. Because of the body of research already available in studying driverless automotive technology, the "FMCSA need not go it alone," he said.
Another factor is whether an expected proliferation of conversion to autonomous trucks would make driver recruitment efforts more difficult than they already are. On one hand, younger, IT savvy folks who might not have given a thought to truck driving as a career might now be drawn to an industry where technology is suddenly top of mind.
On the other, interest in the field may be further stifled if the perception holds that technology will eliminate human involvement, leaving people bored and with nothing to do. Indeed, if the long-term objective is for the vehicle to operate itself, why does a driver even need to be in it?
Angelo Gibson, associate vice president of operations at Omaha-based truckload and logistics giant Werner Enterprises Inc., said present-day driver recruitment challenges are likely to persist for the next five years, regardless of whether autonomous trucks are on the road or not.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.