Trucking’s uneasy relationship with new tech

When Jared for the first time in truck transport more than two decades, he was not expected to be on a tour with a rural music star, the clouds, ampere, and other equipment on the stage.

“It has just happened, the right place, the right time.”

“I have done 5,000 miles in a month and a half, but there is a lot of comfort this year.”

But during a period of vacation between driving to the offers in New Jersey, New York, Toronto and Nafeville, Jared will scan multiple screens in its cabin – laptop, tablet computers and two smartphones – to secure more work. Everything is possible through new technology.

He explains that he is a world far from his career, when he was transporting fruit and wine.

“Again a day, you had to sit next to a phone yet if you were on the road and started calling the people you worked with and then you will have a club.

“Today, you just run your devices and check through possible work. Everything is digital and receive their salaries immediately. It’s much better to work.”

This change was driven by “Uberized” platforms, where truck drivers are digitally with companies that need to be transported. The phrase was formulated due to the similarity with the Ride Hailing app.

While Jared agrees that it has made things easier, the truck driver says it has led to a decrease in wages.

“During Covid, the average was $ 3 (2.24 pounds) per mile, and today on some loads from Toronto to Los Angeles, or $ 1.10 per mile.”

Not to mention, he says, the increasing cost of fuel.

In Canada, eight main platforms appeared including Uber charging, to digitize the market for shipping.

Like the taxi application, they benefit from a fragmented market controlled by smaller players, with 2023 data indicating that more than eight out of every 10 truck and shipping companies in Canada employ less than five people.

Christopher Monette, of the Teamsters Canada team, BBC, told the Canadian Syndicate, which represents more than 130,000 members, including truck drivers, has “deep concerns about the efforts made” to clarify the “truck transport sector”.

“The wages in Canada have been largely stagnant over the past 25 years, and the rise of work is like the party to make things worse,” adding that “the largest transport companies, which are often operating responsibly through investment in safety, training, and appropriate working conditions in danger.”

“Truck drivers do not need another application. We need stronger protection and greater honor.”

When asked, Uber charging did not directly address the issue of wages and prices.

Instead, a spokesman said: “Flexibility, transparency and choice are built directly on our platform.

“Transportation companies can search for loads based on their preferences, such as corridors, type of equipment, commodity, and schedule, or they are immediately at a listed price or offering an average offer that corresponds to their needs better.

In the truck transport industry, the corridor refers to a regular traveler road.

The spokesman said: “Our platform also uses market data in the actual time and the recommendations operating in Amnesty International to help transport companies make the most of their time on the road,” the spokesman said.

The Vancouver is considered to be among the largest players when it comes to digital truck transport services in Canada.

The co -founder, Eric Picetet, meets me at a point overlooking the vast city port, where high -end orange cranes move bright colored containers against the background of the mountains covered with snow.

When the company started in 2014, there were no truck transport applications for Canadian companies.

The service developed by drivers and customers allows the search for 20 billion regular ways to withdraw the shipping, which he says, can be done in “five or 10 seconds”.

It indicates that, unlike other platforms, Shirightera does not specify the prices.

“At Shirigetra, transport companies have set their own price. We ask them what they should be in good and profitable in each lane, and they put the price.”

Mr. Picetet says that the service was useful for truck transport. Before the services were the same, it was to find work, or even the best way, such as “finding a needle in a straw pile,” explained by the president of Shirightera.

He says: “Transport companies really appreciate the reliable demand for Shirightera on the service, which has grown constantly every year, through Covid, inflation after that, and the current shipping recession, one of the largest freight in the middle of shipping.”

The company is now developing artificial intelligence to accelerate complex reservations: “Research in loud and chaotic documents, accurate and inconsistent printed rules – things such as missing paper works, unexpected charges or a guidance problem that may get rid of delivery.”

Mr. Picetet also dreams of a completely automatic charging manufacturer, “40 years of now”, where artificial intelligence will control global shipping.

“Automatically set goods for networks with less capacity and allows full transparency, tracking and even trading while traveling.”

Digital truck transport services are employed all over the world.

Kenya relies heavily on shipping on the roads, as well as embraced the new technology.

“More than 75 % of the internal shipping is transferred to the road, and in many cases it is the only way to transport available,” says Jean-Claude Homawoo, the co-founder of the largest digital charging platform in Africa.

Since its launch in 2016, Lori has grown to 20,000 trucks. She does not have any vehicles but runs them digitally, in an attempt to make sure that the trucks do not stand inactivity or return to the home empty.

At that time, he says: “There are some ways like Mombasa to Kampala, Uganda, where we have downloaded a lot of trucks that fell the price of a complete truck load.”

If truck drivers find work that requires less driving without charging, they should use less fuel.

This may be useful in cutting industry contribution to carbon dioxide emissions (CO2).

Truck transport is more than half of the carbon dioxide emissions in trade -related transport, According to the McKinsey 2022 report.

Mr. Piceta is convinced that technology is the same, the answer.

“It is much more than that of energy efficiency and cost -more efficient.”

A form of artificial intelligence may help drivers find work, but one day, one day, they can get them out of work.

In April, a driver -free commercial truck moved to an American highway for the first time, run by the United States -based technology company.

In China, Truck fleets without driver It is currently working on testing throughout the country.

“Technology is present”, Mr. Picetet explains from a disguise. “Only if we are confident that it is abandoned on the roads. It is clear that there are bureaucratic obstacles in the road and the red tape.”

For truck driver Jared, the charging is still a distant probability.

“The transport has been present for hundreds of years. It will not end with people who were worried about self -driving trucks, this will not happen any time soon.”