Ben Ames has spent 20 years as a journalist since starting out as a daily newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania in 1995. From 1999 forward, he has focused on business and technology reporting for a number of trade journals, beginning when he joined Design News and Modern Materials Handling magazines. Ames is author of the trail guide "Hiking Massachusetts" and is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
Autonomous trucking developer Embark Technology said today it teamed up with vehicle rental and leasing giant Ryder System Inc. last month to conduct four self-driving truck tests, the first steps in offering the technology in the commercial space within a few years.
In a series of test drives beginning in October, the partners assigned humans to drive tractor-trailers in the first- and last-mile sections on surface roads. The trailers were then, transferred to an autonomous tractor for the highway portion, Ontario, Calif.-based Embark said. A human driver was behind the wheel whether the vehicle was operating in an autonomous or traditional driving mode.
The partners created a relay of handoffs between human-controlled and autonomous tractors hauling trailers loaded with Frigidaire refrigerators between distribution centers in El Paso, Texas, and Ontario, Calif. The 650-mile route covered stretches of Interstate 10 in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
In each test, a human driver from Ryder's Dedicated Transportation Solutions division picked up the trailer at the Texas DC and brought it to a transition point along the interstate, where the driver unhooked and connected the trailer to Embark's automated truck. The Embark tractor then hauled the load along the highway portion before handing the trailer off to a second Ryder driver, who covered the final miles and made the delivery in California.
The Embark trucks operated at a "Level 2" automated driving setting, where computers handled accelerating, braking, and steering. In a Level 2 environment, the driver's hands can be off the wheel, and the driver is prepared to intervene at all times. Level 0 describes human-controlled driving, while Level 5 is full autonomy.
Technology behind self-driving vehicles continues to advance at a rapid pace. However, self-driving trucks won't begin cruising American roads until 2025 at the earliest, due largely to regulatory hurdles, according to a recent study from consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
Automakers like Volvo and Daimler AG have conducted tests of self-driving trucks on U.S. and European roads. The San Francisco-based ride-hailing pioneer Uber Technologies Inc. jumped into the ring in 2016 when it acquired autonomous trucking startup Otto for $680 million.
By partnering with Embark, Ryder is building its familiarity with self-driving vehicle technology, and working through two phases of adopting it for eventual commercial use, Chris Nordh, Ryder's senior director for advance vehicle technology, said in an interview.
The first phase includes the recent Embark tests, which rely on a suite of "driver assistance technologies" as opposed to fully automated driving, he said. "We're already incorporating autonomous and semi-autonomous technologies into our logistics fleet and our rental fleet today, such as forward-looking radar, emergency braking, and lane departure warnings. Those are building blocks," Nordh said.
The second phase of bring autonomous trucks to market will require changes in the regulatory environment and in social acceptance of the technology by other drivers on the road, Nordh said. Those hurdles may take time to clear, but as the public increasingly sees fully autonomous, "Uber-type" vehicles driving in urban environments, they will become more accepting of the idea of sharing the highway with autonomous trucks, said Nordh.
As Embark continues to push its autonomous trucking technology to market, it will focus on highway driving, which has more structured rules than local roads, allows for faster commercialization, and could help solve a looming driver shortage challenge for the freight industry, according to Embark CEO Alex Rodrigues.
"Trucking is facing a workforce problem,"" Rodrigues said in a statement. "More than 50 percent of all drivers will retire in the next two decades and there aren't nearly enough young drivers joining the industry to replace them. By allowing automation to work together with local drivers to handle less desirable long haul routes, we will be able to increase productivity to address the current shortage of 50,000 drivers while creating new local driving jobs that attract younger drivers for the industry."
Embark will also continue to work with retailers like Frigidaire, which said the technology could help it ensure a reliable delivery network, according to a statement from AB Electrolux, Frigidaire's Swedish parent. "Every month we're making big strides," Rodrigues said. "We're working towards commercializing this technology and aim to have it operational within just a few years."
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.