The Impact of Automation on the Trucking Industry: What You Need to Know

How Automation Will Affect The Trucking Industry – If you’re always on the lookout for new business technologies, you might have encountered the concept of automation before. It’s one of the top trends in tech because of its noticeable potential to enhance business processes and increase profit. In fact, a report by Yahoo Finance shared that within three months of investment in automation, companies in the US witnessed an average year-on-year increase in revenue. That is 7%, an extra $195 billion per month. By simply looking at the ROI of using automation, it’s no wonder that more and more businesses are adopting them.

Today, automation is also finding its way and purpose in the trucking and logistics sector. To understand how automation works, as well as discover its benefits to your small trucking businesses, here are concrete examples of how automation is being used in the industry:

Automatically monitor and store data from vehicles

The first advantage of automation is that it can automatically monitor your commercial vehicles’ driving hours. Mileage can be monitored remotely with the help of cloud computing services. Cloud computing refers to the hosted services, such as data storage, servers, databases, networking, and software over the internet. Instead of having your data stored on physical servers, you can have cloud service providers store important data for you. Because of this, you can access IT resources on-demand, from any device, and at any time. Many businesses are acknowledging the benefit of cloud computing. According to the previous Yahoo Finance article, 78% of companies in the US are now investing in cloud services to improve and automate their operations.

In the trucking industry, cloud computing is an indispensable tool in managing and tracking operations. For instance, David Gargaro discussed that cloud computing helps make electronic logging device (ELD) systems highly reliable and secure for small trucking companies. With cloud computing, you can use ELD to automatically check and record driving activity, mileage, engine hours, and the real-time location. These are important because it ensures all your deliverables and goals are achieved.

Predict and avoid undesirable situations

You can also predict and avoid undesirable situations for your small trucking business by using predictive analytics. Predictive analytics is a tool companies use to determine the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data. Maryville University explains that predictive analytic networks use the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to assist managers in making data-driven decisions for their businesses. Companies like IBM, SAS, KNIME, and RapidMiner have already adopted predictive analytics to optimize network efficiency. Because these tools are continuously improving, you will see that most predictions closely match actual outcomes. This makes predictive analytics an invaluable tool in your business.

With predictive analytics, you can further improve operations and reduce the likelihood of delays in your deliveries. This is because implementing predictive analytics into your transportation management process can help predict service failures even before they happen. They manipulate information regarding historical transit times, weather, and patterns in carrier service failures to anticipate delivery hours and suggest alternative driving routes to quicken delivery times. Because of this, the usage of predictive analytics among supply chain professionals grew by 76% between 2017 and 2019.

Improve operational efficiency

Lastly, automation can help you improve your operational efficiency for your small trucking business. Network automation is a methodology where the software automatically configures, manages, and tests network devices. With this tech, you can delegate menial tasks to computers instead of human employees. Doing so will enable you to improve efficiency, reduce human error, and lower the operating expenses of your business.

One of the popular developments in the trucking industry today is the invention of self-driving trucks. They were introduced as a solution to the long work hours that drivers experience that can affect their health and safety on the road. TuSimple is a driverless tech company that tested and verified the advantage of using self-driving trucks. They found that automated driving systems enabled a 42% faster run than human drivers, showing the potential of self-driving trucks to expedite delivery times and reduce delays. Our article on ‘The Trucking KPIs Every Growing Fleet Should Be Tracking’ shared that efficiency KPIs are one of the metrics you need to track to achieve growth goals.

Should You Invest in Automation?

Because of these benefits, automation in the trucking industry is becoming part of the norm. You can exploit this technology to improve your logistic services, allowing you to accomplish tasks and achieve growth goals swiftly.

                                              Post solely for the use of thunderfunding.com By Camille Russell

For more information about trucking technologies be sure to check out this blog post: 3 Trucking Technologies You Need Right Now