by Jennifer Hart Yim | May 15, 2017 | Blog, Current Events, Supply Chain, Transportation & Trucking
Autonomous vehicles will be implemented gradually, and will serve to increase a truck driver’s productivity rather than replace the driver completely.
This article is part of a series of articles written by MBA students and graduates from the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics.
“If I were a truck driver, I’d be looking to make a career change.” This has been my first thought when considering the future of self-driving cars, or autonomous vehicles.
It seems that the rise of autonomous trucks is inevitable. The major players in the automotive industry are heavily focused on developing autonomous vehicles, and newcomers like Apple and Uber are joining in the pursuit. The required technology is advancing every day, and the financial incentives associated with commercial transportation and vehicle services provide an opportunity that will likely result in early adoption when compared to personal vehicles.
The U.S. trucking industry
The trucking industry is massive, and the United States economy is hugely dependent upon it. Truck driving is the most popular occupation in 29 of the 50 states, with 3,500,000 truck drivers in the U.S. This means that in most of the country, one is more likely to meet a truck driver than any other occupation.
Seventy percent of total U.S. freight tonnage, an equivalent of 10.5 billion tons of freight per year, is transported via trucking. Every product you purchase, consume, or see in a store is dependent on trucking.
Amazingly, 38,000,000,000 gallons of diesel fuel are consumed each year to keep goods moving in the United States. The industry generates $750,000,000,000 in revenue each year, and is expected to grow rapidly. The shear size of this market provides an incentive for innovation, and it is expected that autonomous trucking will remove significant cost from the supply chain.
The driver shortage
Despite the importance of the trucking industry, there are fundamental problems. It is expected that almost 100,000 new truck drivers will be required every year for the next 10 years based on industry growth projections, and trucking companies have already been complaining about a driver shortage for years. Industry growth will only compound this shortage.
This has led companies to focus on recruiting and retention, but it has been difficult to attract new participants to the industry. The industry is a comparatively “old” industry. One challenge is that to obtain an interstate CDL license, one must be 21 years old. When most young people graduate high school at 18 or 19, this forces years of idle time before one is even eligible to drive a truck. As a result, the industry is not an option for new graduates, and new graduates start down other paths.
The driver shortage is increasing labor rates in the industry, and labor already constitutes a third of the costs of transport. Autonomous trucking would help remove some of these costs from the supply chain.
Autonomous-vehicle technology
Autonomous vehicles are not a new idea. The concept has existed since 1920, but it is only recently that the technology has manifested itself in a commercially viable way. LIDAR and RADAR technology has improved in recent years, and advanced cameras by companies such as MobileEye can help a human-less vehicle see.
Perhaps the largest contributor has been improvements in software development and decision-making algorithims — technology that is still in its infancy, but rapidly maturing. Vehicle-to-vehicle communications have recently advanced and have facilitated “platooning,” or a single driver commanding a platoon of vehicles. Google, Uber, Apple, Tesla, Volvo, Mercedes and others are investing in the technology. Interestingly, the market literature for the Mercedes Future Truck 2025 is adamant that the autonomous vehicles will only aid a driver, and that the driver will remain with the vehicle for the forseeable future.
Challenges
Even with rapid technological advancement, there are challenges to the adoption of autonomous trucks.
The industry is highly visible to the public, and recent technological development has sprouted a wide-spread fear of automation. It is likely that any accidents related to self-driving vehicles will receive the utmost scrutiny in a very public forum. Further, truck drivers are faced with challenging, and sometimes even life-or-death, decisions as part of their daily activities. In the event of an accident, a driver sometimes must decide how to crash, and the results of these decisions may cause death to the others involved in the accident.
Imagine, for example, a situation where the driver must choose to avoid a vehicle in the road, hit a pedestrian, or direct the truck off the road into a barrier. In each situation, someone will be hurt. If we rely on automation to make these decisions, we must program the right decision. As the computer system making the decision will be forced to make this decision with limited and imperfect information, even if the system is programmed “morally,” it will be forced to make imperfect life-and-death decisions.
Also to consider:
- Will society be comfortable delegating these decisions to automation?
- Who will purchase a vehicle that might choose to kill its passengers?
- In these type of situations, who is liable? The programmers? The truck manufacturer? The trucking company?
- If there is no individual responsible for the accident and there is no threat of imprisonment, only of fines, does this change the current traffic accident paradigm?
These questions must be confronted before the widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles.
The threat to drivers
If we accept that these challenges are resolved, it seems that the threat to truck drivers from autonomous vehicles is limited. The concept of completely driverless trucks is based on a drastic oversimplification of the trucker’s actual job. Over the road trucking has been rated toward the middle of the top 100 occupations for risk of being automated by the Brookings Institute.
Truck drivers do much more than just drive the truck, such as taking inventory, inspecting loads, manipulating loading docks, and placing orders. Many of these tasks are much more complicated than just conducting a truck on the interstate.
In the future, the truck driver will be reimagined as a logistics expert. A slogan from OTTO, the self-driving company responsible for the recent Budweiser beer run, sums up the current direction of the industry well: “We want to make it safe for the driver to sleep from exit to exit.”
The consensus amongst industry analysts is that the trucker will remain with the vehicle for the forseeable future. Even truck driver labor organizations such as ATBS are embracing autonomous vehicles as a productivity improvement in their industry.
Conclusion
Given the rapid growth of the industry, the current shortage of truck drivers and the demand for new drivers over the coming years, it seems like truck drivers should not be afraid of losing their jobs to automation in the short term. Likely, autonomous vehicles will be implemented gradually, and will serve to increase a truck driver’s productivity rather than replace the driver completely.
It is expected that over one-third of the trucks on the road in 2025 will be heavily automated, but complete autonomy is still in the distance future. Autonomous trucks may help to relieve the industry driver shortage, but they are unlikely to displace the millions of Americans that depend on driving truck for their livings.
Jacob Rossman is a manufacturing engineer at a major pharmaceutical company. His passions include futurism and technology. He lives in Rochester NH, with his wife Whitney, dog, cat and two pet rabbits.
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | May 11, 2017 | Blog, Current Events, Logistics, Manufacturing & Distribution, Supply Chain, Transportation & Trucking, Warehousing & Materials Handling
This post comes to us from Adam Robinson of Cerasis, a top freight logistics company and truckload freight broker.
Imagine a world where automation comes together with technology to deliver products without human intervention. An order is placed by a consumer. 3-D printers pick up the details and print the finished product. It’s then picked by robots from the shelves, packaged and placed into a self-driving truck. The trucks leave the facility, and drones are automatically dispatched from the truck to deliver products while moving. The truck never stops until arriving for reloading.
This example generates a huge amount of data that can leverage in the supply chain. But, the same data can have a drastic impact on transportation planners and agencies around the globe. While this example may still be a few years off, it is important that you understand how the top emerging trends in automation will shape supply chains and transportation processes in the coming years.
The Standard Definition & Components of Automation
Today: There is a standard definition of automation in the supply chain. Anything that can be handled via today’s computer systems can be automated. This includes billing, generation of bills of lading, compliance reports, and even movements throughout a factory or warehouse floor.
Historically, automation has been applied to virtual processes, like order auditing or customer service reports. However, the trends in automation are changing to reflect actions that function more like artificial intelligence, not just a search and locate program on the computer.
Additive Manufacturing
What is it?
Additive manufacturing includes all actions in the supply chain that can enhance existing factory production, if not replace it entirely. Additive manufacturing may be handled manually, but automating this process is as simple as turning on the power and connecting to the Internet of Things (IoT).
For example, additive manufacturing might involve the use of 3-D printers to create replacement parts at the store for consumers.
Today’s status: Unfortunately, the capacity of 3-D printers remains in infancy, capable of only producing simplified parts out of liquid polymers.
Virtual Reality Comes to the Forefront.
Meanwhile, Google Glass and other virtual reality tech are changing how customers complete their orders. In addition, the same technology can be overlaid with augmented reality to give repair technicians and individuals greater resource access when making repairs, checking order contents and fulfilling orders.
For example, augmented reality glasses will soon detect package dimensions and classify the package according to dimensional pricing models.
Today’s Status: Today, this technology is limited to automated identification and data capture (AIDC) applications. Advancements in virtual reality over the past year indicate its future might be much closer than “meets the eye.”
Additive manufacturing will gradually move products from warehouses and distribution centers to be closer to end-users. As a result, the amount of last-mile traffic may increase.
Robotics Enhance Inbound and Outbound Logistics for Shippers.
Another trend in automation involves robotics. By definition, robotics are the icons of automation. They perform functions at the request of a system or person, but more of today’s robotic systems are performing duties upon request from an order fulfillment system.
The order process automatically notifies robots in warehouses and triggers the flow of processes as seen in the opening example.
Robotics Improve Inbound and Outbound Logistics.
Robotics are not isolated to warehouse pulling for outbound logistics. They can be used to manage inbound and outbound processes and strategy. Through trends in automation and robotics, supply chain companies will have the tools and resources necessary to ramp up throughput and decrease product cycle from order to delivery. Therefore, more trucks and drivers will be needed, but the looming driver shortage and capacity crunch will trigger another automation trend.
Autonomous Vehicles/ Trucks
Automation begets automation. With advances in technology and the IoT, most major companies, including Uber, Facebook, Google, and Amazon, have launched autonomous vehicle and truck pilot programs.
These driverless vehicle programs will give supply chains access to a new inexhaustible resource for moving products, overcoming the challenges inherent in the driver shortage and capacity crunch.
The driver shortage and capacity crunch are likely to come to a head in 2017, as consumers demand more product, at lower costs and faster than ever before.
Some setbacks have occurred, like the first self-driving car wreck earlier this year. With each setback and challenge, companies have pushed back to overcome the obstacles.
In response to increased interest in driverless vehicles and trucks, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued recommendations and created an advisory panel to review ongoing driverless vehicle advancements and maintain public safety.
Transporters and supply chains will respond to this direction by leveraging the trends in automation and power of data to ensure compliance with increased government oversight, through the agencies you represent.
Companies have already tested cross-country driverless trucks, albeit with a person ready in the cab to take over in the event of a system failure. However, the wide-scale deployment of this level of driverless trucks is far from implementation.
In the interim, more automated vehicle systems will work in tandem with drivers to enhance safety and maintain vehicle control. Similar systems are already deployed in crash and pedestrian detection systems, automated braking and tracking control in today’s vehicles. It is not difficult to apply today’s technology and automated features to the fleets and drivers of 2017.
Trends in Automation: Whats the Potential?
The potential applications of this type of technology can include real-time traffic condition monitoring and warnings, redirecting traffic before pile-ups and accidents occur, similar to Google Maps’ capacity to show traffic congestion in real-time.
Data through such systems can automatically feed back into transportation planners’ systems to automatically change signal phase and timing and enable immediate rerouting or adjustment of traffic flow on a broader scale.
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by Fronetics | Mar 15, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
A supply chain company published one more blog post per week and gained a new customer in one month.
Companies in the logistics and supply chain industries have been hesitant to adopt digital and content marketing because they are unsure about the benefits. We hear it all the time: Who is going to read a blog about my business? How is that going to get me more customers?
Something else we see all the time? How content marketing works for supply chain companies.
You see, the B2B buying process has changed. The vast majority of buyers now go online to research products and services they want to purchase. The proof is in the numbers:
- 94% of buyers reported using online research at some point in the purchasing process.
- 62% of B2B buyers say that a web search was one of the first three resources they use to learn about a solution.
- 95% of B2B buyers are willing to consider vendor-related content as trustworthy.
- 67% more leads were generated by companies with an active blog last year.
- 47% of B2B buyers consume 3-5 pieces of content prior to engaging with a salesperson.
- 51% of B2B buyers rely more on content to research and make B2B purchasing decisions than they did a year ago.
I could go on and on.
Blogging frequency matters
Here’s the rub: Blogging every once and awhile isn’t going to get you results. You need to publish quality content on a consistent basis to attract prospects to your site.
The reality is that the more often you blog, the more traffic and leads you’ll get. Search engines consider posting frequency in their rankings. What’s more, every time you post, you create a new opportunity to be found, to be shared, and to be linked to by other sites.
That being said, you don’t need to post five times a week to be successful. In fact, small steps can go a long way.
Try one more post per week
We often encourage our clients to increase their blogging cadence by just one more post per week. Though some are skeptical of the impact this will have on their traffic and lead-generation efforts, they inevitably find that such a small step can make a big difference.
Take one client of ours, for example.
We suggested moving from publishing one post to two posts per week. The client was unsure this would have any impact, especially for a company in the supply chain industry. But the immediate results spoke for themselves.
After just one month, the client saw the following successes:
- Web traffic increased by 23%.
- Social reach increased by 252%.
- Sales leads doubled. 90% of those leads were sourced from organic search.
- A lead converted to a customer.
All of these results were directly related to the increased blog frequency.
Test it out
The trouble in publishing more posts is balancing resources so that you’re publishing frequently but maintaining value and quality within your content. We’re big advocates of testing to find your personal sweet spot for the amount of posts your organization is able to publish to maximize traffic and leads.
Try publishing one more post per week for one month. Track your KPIs, calculate ROI, and assess whether increasing the blogging frequency is right for your business. You may be surprised at the results.
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by Fronetics | Feb 22, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Strategy
Follow these 4 steps to learn how to build a successful DIY content marketing strategy that will help grow your business.
Are you trying to create a content marketing strategy, but don’t know where to begin? Even the language around content marketing can seem foreign to newcomers. That’s why Fronetics created its guide, How to Grow Your Business with Content (download below) — to make creating a content marketing strategy possible for the DIYer in your company.
Setting your content marketing strategy is a crucial first step in trying to reach your target audience. Before you begin writing blogs and posting tweets, you need to set goals. A content marketing strategy outlines the methods by which you will target, reach, and engage your audience. Here are four steps, outlined in the guide, to creating a successful foundation to your content marketing strategy.
Steps to building a content marketing strategy
1. Identify your target audience and buyer persona(s)
Knowing who your ideal customer is allows you to create content that is informative, educational, and entertaining to that specific person. Trying to write compelling content for an unidentified audience is like taking a shot in the dark. The more detailed you can be with your buyer persona(s), the more specific and effective your content can become.
2. Define goals and objectives
Your content goals should be a direct reflection of your business goals. What do you want your content marketing efforts to accomplish for your company? The top marketing goals for content marketers in 2016 included converting contacts/leads to customers, growing website traffic, and increasing revenue derived from existing customers. Make sure you include short-term and long-term goals and that you frequently refer back to these goals to make sure your strategy is on track.
3. Developing and distributing content
Once you have identified your audience and defined your content goals, you can begin to educate yourself about the distribution platforms that will work best for your business. Let’s face it: Social media is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s imperative you know not only what to post but where to post it.
There are lots of great resources to help you optimize your content marketing presence. You can individualize your outreach so your blog posts are reaching one target audience, while your tweets are capturing another.
4. Put your knowledge to work
Once you have worked through the initial steps of planning a successful content marketing strategy, the real fun begins. It’s time to start pushing valuable, effective content out to consumers. If you’ve spent the time and effort up front to really thing through your strategy, you’ll reap the rewards in good time. Just remember that your strategy should be fluid, and you should be able to adjust your plans as you move forward and find what is working and what isn’t.
Pulling together a content marketing strategy for your B2B business can seem overwhelming. But having the right tools to support you can make all the difference. Download Fronetics’ easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide How to Grow Your Business with Content below to take the leap to a successful DIY content marketing strategy today.
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by Fronetics | Feb 8, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Find out when your target audience is most active on different social media platforms by using these 4 online tools.
Social media has changed the landscape for doing business. With the click of a button, companies are able to instantly communicate with untapped markets and potential clients. The days of face-to-face interactions have been replaced with live streaming videos, tweets, chats, and likes.
But it’s not enough to curate content for your social media platforms. Today’s social media users expect fresh, innovative ideas around the clock. And when this content is being shared is just as valuable as what is being shared.
There is a lot of research out there that highlights the optimal time to post on various social media platforms. For example, marketing analytics software provider TrackMaven has published its Best Times to Post on Social Media Cheat Sheet, which breaks down posting by industry, brand, and product. It also offers general dates and times that can boost success.
But, the truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all social media posting solution.
You need to take it one step further. You need to know the best time for your business to post content. You want more than just a general idea of when to post. You want specific information about your target audience — when they’re actively scrolling, reading, watching and liking your content.
Determining the best time to post on social media
There are a broad range of tools available that will analyze the personal data of your social media followers and help you compute the best time to post on social media. Here are four that we think offer the most useful information and are easy to use.
1. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management tool that can do everything from scheduling social media posts to measuring your social media ROI. The AutoSchedule feature lets Hootsuite determine the best time to publish a post or tweet based on when similar content performed well in the past. It also considers the platform and can publish the same message at different times based on audience engagement on each particular network.
2. Tweriod
Tweriod, a free Twitter tool that helps you know the best time to tweet, is changing the way companies approach their marketing tweets. It will evaluate up to 1,000 of your followers and their tweeting patterns, including schedule, interests, and retweets. You then receive an analysis of when your tweets will receive the most exposure.
3. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a robust analytical tool for determining how web users are interacting with your digital assets, including social media. Three custom reports (Best Days to Post on Social Media, Best Time to Post on Social Network by Hour, and the Social Media Traffic by Date and Hour) offer real-time, in-depth insight. Also, Google Analytics is free!
4. SproutSocial
SproutSocial offers a customized dashboard with a quick overview of how your social media channels are performing. You also can gain deeper insight into your customers — like gender and age demographics. And you can assess your customer reach and what will work in your favor.
Creating a strong social media presence is essential for any business. But having a presence is just a starting point in understanding how to fully optimize these ever-changing platforms to work for you. Using online tools to analyze when and where your content should be posted will enhance the value of your social media efforts. In short, you can generate customers and growth potential by pushing your content through the right avenues at the right time.
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