Trucking is the backbone of American life, providing consumers, businesses, governments, and supply chains with the essential goods for our daily lives — including the foods we eat, the goods we rely on, and the medicine we need. Chances are, most of the things in your home were delivered on a truck.
The impact of trucking is never more evident than during the holiday season. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), November and December make up nearly 20% of annual retail sales, and this number is only expected to rise.
As customer demand surges over the final months of the year, let’s explore the impact of holiday shipping on the industry — and some of the ways autonomous trucking can help solve some of those pain points.
Driver and equipment shortages
Seasonal demand is always fluctuating, but the holiday season is when it can reach a critical mass. Volume shipped can surpass available capacity, placing downward pressure on shippers to meet delivery deadlines. That demand upswing places immense pressure on the trucking industry to plan for capacity and contingencies for potential service disruptions.
One of the leading areas this can be felt, especially when capacity can be tight and with shorter lead times, is vehicle and trailer availability. Some companies will rent additional trailers or send teams of drivers onto a single trip to keep that truck running continuously, potentially at a higher cost.
- How autonomy can help: Self-driving technology will provide carriers and fleet owners with a scalable, stable driver and equipment supply that can be flexed based on demand. This supply of autonomous vehicles will supplement human drivers to enable trucking carriers and fleet owners to plan for peak demand more efficiently.
Traffic congestion and delays
The holiday season can also be synonymous with holiday traffic, with higher volumes of drivers leading to crowded highways, as well as unpredictable weather conditions, and longer travel times. That increase in traffic congestion can lead to delays or impact the efficiency of trucking operations.
Heavy traffic also plays a significant impact on road safety. According to the American Trucking Association, more than 115 million people will travel during the holiday season. Accidents increase during this time, due to factors such as fatigue, tight turnarounds for deliveries, and poor weather.
- How autonomy can help: Human factors such as fatigue, distraction or recklessness are attributed to 94% of crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Autonomous trucks offer opportunities to address this. They are never fatigued, distracted, or reckless, and offer 360-degree constant attention to the driving environment through the use of advanced sensing and perception technology. Advanced sensors such as Firstlight Lidar and computer-controlled braking improve the truck's ability to avoid or mitigate safety-critical events.
Autonomous trucks can move goods faster and more efficiently, which can mean avoiding spoilage of perishable goods and reduced the risk of lost sales.
Operational planning and logistics
With increased demand, trucking companies must create well-designed operational planning and logistics strategies. These can include optimizing routes, allocating resources thoughtfully (such as bringing on additional part-time workers and equipment), and coordinating with shipping partners to ensure seamless operations.
- How autonomy can help: Aurora’s autonomous trucks will be primarily focused on the “middle mile” — that is, the movement of goods along the long stretches of highway that separate cities. The critical advantage here is that a fleet of autonomous trucks can move goods faster and more efficiently by not being subject to the Hours of Service limits all commercial driver’s license (CDL) drivers must observe for 11 hours, then take a required 10-hour break.
Because they are not subject to the hours of service limitations that humans have to abide by to prevent fatigue, or unsafe operations, autonomous trucks can drive more hours and longer distances, which means freight can be delivered faster and cut transit times in half. This means smoother and more reliable supply chains, which can unlock greater markets for producers and manufacturers.
Recently, Aurora announced its plans to extend its Fort Worth to El Paso lane — on which we are autonomously hauling loads daily — to Phoenix, one of our customers’ most frequently requested lanes. The Fort Worth to Phoenix lane spans over 1,000 miles and takes at least 15 hours to complete, making it particularly compelling for autonomy.
Additionally, Aurora’s self-driving technology will enable fleet intelligence technology, giving each Aurora Driver-powered vehicle access to observations of all other such vehicles on the road. This system continuously consolidates, synthesizes, then disseminates observations, providing every truck with the collective intelligence of the entire fleet. Customers will gain shared insights around road conditions across their vehicles, allowing them to proactively manage fleets around unexpected weather, traffic, or construction.
Harnessing innovation
Trucking moves America forward, as the slogan says. So too does innovation. Today, Aurora Driver-powered class 8 trucks haul commercial freight on public roads in Texas. Over the coming months, we are focused on a sequence of critical steps to prepare for a successful driverless launch:
- Ongoing safety, performance, and reliability tests of the Aurora Driver and redundant truck
- Continuing our commercial pilots with key customers with a safety driver
- Confirming the combined system meets the exacting requirements of our Safety Case
As we look ahead to the future and the possibilities that autonomous vehicle technology will bring, we hope we’re not only measuring the number of loads transported during the holiday season but also the number of lives saved on our highways.
Footnotes
- https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2024/holiday-season.html
- https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TRUCKD11
- https://nrf.com/research-insights/holiday-data-and-trends/winter-holidays/winter-holiday-faqs
- https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2024/holiday-season.html
- https://www.trucking.org/economics-and-industry-data
- https://www.trucking.org/national-truck-driver-appreciation-week
