2018 was and continues to be a big year for the trucking and transportation industry. The future of the transportation industry will continually change over the next 10 years. Let’s take a look at some of the changes that took and will take place.
- ELDs were mandatory as of April 2018. Well, sort of. Some people are exempt until 2019. Electronic logging devices connect to the truck’s engine in order to record the number of driving hours per truck driver. This replaces the manual paper logs done by the individual driver and in turn gives more accurate results.
- Electric Semi-Trucks – Walmart and Pepsi are just two of the several companies who have already been confirmed of ordering Tesla’s new electric semi. This truck can go 0-60 in five seconds and can drive 500 miles per charge.
- Greenhouse Gas Standards- while these aren’t into effect just yet, they will be beginning for the 2021 model year trucks. The EPA issued three different standards for trucks with the model year 2021, 2024, and 2027. These new standards may be costly but the anticipated savings on fuel will make up for the additional expenses.
- Drone Delivery- This can take the expense out of owning a truck. Fuel, repairs, parts, tires, and maintenance are just three of the expenses you have when running a trucking company. Drones could be the future of delivery. In fact, Amazon has already tested this method out with their Prime Air program a few years ago. Packages to your door within 30 minutes of ordering might sound appealing but there are a lot of restrictions to this method. Having a package under 5 pounds and living within 10 miles of an Amazon order fulfillment center are just two of the requirements.
Ten years from now, much of this will be a thing of the past and there will be other changes and implementations to look forward to in the trucking and transportation industry. Time will only tell.
http://fleettrailer.com/3-regulations-change-trucking/
https://stfalcon.com/en/blog/post/transportation-industry-trends
https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Prime-Air/b?ie=UTF8&node=8037720011