Catherwood LibraryILR School

As with other industries facing the challenges of increasing automation, opinions in the trucking industry remain collided as to whether, and how soon, automated driving will change today’s $700 billion trucking industry, which employs over 1.8 million drivers in the U.S. alone and is the single most common job in many U.S. states. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, plans to introduce an electric-powered semi next month that is likely to be semi-autonomous, but some drivers doubt whether it will affect their jobs anytime soon. Obstacles include updating infrastructure needs and the politics behind having to lay off so many drivers, with the transportation secretary being “very concerned” about the impact of self-driving cars on U.S. jobs, especially given that many truckers came to the field after losing jobs in other fields due to automation. The managers of Iowa 80, the world’s largest truck stop serving 5000 customers a day on Interstate 80, are not worried and are planning to expand the number of restaurants and shopping outlets available at the “Disneyland of truckers.” Others feel that fully operational self-driving trucks will start replacing jobs within the next year, and will probably become commonplace within ten years, due to the tempting gain of significant labor savings and efficiencies. Labor accounts for 75% of the cost of transporting shipments by truck, and human drivers are prohibited from driving more than 11 hours a day. Automated drivers would double the output of the trucking network at a quarter of the cost with an eight-time increase in productivity. Automation would also cut down on the 41,000 highway deaths in the U.S. every year, virtually all of which are due to driver error. The Teamsters union felt concerned enough to successfully push Congress in July to slow legislation for states looking to increase the use of automated vehicles. California, Florida, Michigan and Utah had already laid the groundwork for fewer truckers by passing laws allowing trucks to drive autonomously in “platoons”, where two or more big rigs drive together and synchronize their movements.