DIGGING IN

Lockwood
By Rolf Lockwood
Anything is Possible
We’ve seen change before, and we’ve been
resilient, but get ready for tomorrow
W
here are we headed? Well, with enormous potential
waiting to burst, we’re in the midst of the second
industrial revolution. It’s all about the Internet
of Things, meaning a network of physical things embedded
with electronics and sensors and internet connectivity – and
crucially, the ability to exchange data. Put a savvy truck in the
middle of that network and start thinking about what it could
link up with.
This is big. And wildly complex.
There was a time not so long ago when things started to get
complicated trucking-wise. I suppose you could define that
extended moment as the time when the suits decided that
regulatory controls had to go. It didn’t happen overnight, but
happen it did, and our industry was basically turned on its head.
A phrase was launched in that era – “the only constant is
change” – and it was on everyone’s lips. An accurate assessment
of things at the time, the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, but
we didn’t know what was coming. We had no idea.
We’re now in the midst of a revolution that mocks the notion
of change we had 30 years ago. Back then we could keep up
because the basic principles remained the same, but keeping up
in 2016 is a different matter altogether. The fundamentals of the
freight-hauling business are being bent and shifted to the point
where it seems that anything is possible.
Autonomous vehicles seem to be the magnet idea in 2016,
but it’s really a pretty old concept that goes back decades. Two
years ago I watched a Mercedes-Benz Actros wing its way down
a stretch of German autobahn while the driver fooled around on
his tablet, maybe ordering pizza. Freightliner followed with its
own such truck.
Drivers began to think that their jobs were about to disappear,
but they’re not. First off, we’re talking about Level 3 autonomy
there, meaning a driver is still in charge. Secondly, there are so
many legislative and social hurdles standing in the way that you
can all relax for quite a few years yet. In other words, don’t hold
your breath.
“ We’re now in the
midst of a revolution
that mocks the notion
of change we had
30 years ago.”
We’ll see platooning long before any of that, maybe as early
as next year, some say. Which means two, three, or even 10
trucks in close formation, essentially a train in which the first
truck sets both pace and direction, the rest following its lead.
They’re connected and held in close proximity to one another by
electronic systems that are already well proven in solo trucks –
radar, video, GPS, collision mitigation gizmology, etc.
All of that is pretty cool stuff but for the most part it’s built on
what has become fairly ordinary technology. We already have
trucks that can “see” the road ahead by means of GPS and then
manage engine and transmission
and road speed with the
coming terrain in “mind”. We
can now update or change
engine parameters remotely
on the fly. Magical.
But the Internet of Things
will lead us into very new
territory. IoT for short, it
means connecting our uber-
competent vehicles with almost everything else from other road
users to “smart” infrastructure. It means, at the most mundane
level, sharing weather information with other vehicles and possibly
adjusting a route automatically. It will also mean linking the
truck with traffic alerts or parking options, taking decisions and
many stressors out of the driver’s hands.
It will also include load management and route planning and
even border crossings, all of it integrated and to some very large
extent automated.
That’s all about over-the-road operations but this data
integration will reach everywhere, and maybe most dramatically
in urban delivery.
I can’t wait to see it all unfold. TT
Rolf Lockwood is vice-president, editorial, at Newcom Business Media.
You can reach him at 416-614-5825 or rolf@todaystrucking.com.
NOVEMBER 2016 9