Self-driving trucks are going to drastically change the profession of truck drivers. The job package of a truck driver will become more like that of an administrative assistant, with characteristics of an account manager. This is according to the research project Value Added Trucking by the Flemish Institute for Logistics (VIL).
Self-driving trucks are expected to hit the roads in the near future. With current legislation, there must still always be a driver on board the truck. The VIL investigated what other tasks could be assigned to the driver to make his presence still useful. Indeed, boredom could affect the driver's health in the long run.
Plenty of opportunities
The VIL concluded that the driver can take on the administrative handling of the transport order while driving. The possibilities also include taking on new transport orders or recording information about loading and unloading locations. The driver can further use the hours to carry out part of the mandatory in-service training. Opportunities abound to keep the job of driver useful for both driver and employer, VIL concludes. A business case in the study even shows that companies can save 6,000 to 10,000 euros per truck annually by working this way.
Suitable personnel
The big challenge lies in finding suitable personnel for this job profile. The average driver does not (yet) have sufficient administrative skills. Moreover, transport companies often employ foreign drivers who do not speak the language of the country. The VIL argues that transport companies that want to get started with self-driving technology should check the extent to which drivers have mastered skills in communication, talent, computers and multimedia. "The business case led to a paradoxical finding. Self-driving trucks are expected to take over from drivers mainly on long international journeys, giving them time to perform additional tasks and undergo training. But during these journeys, the number of tasks is quite limited. In national transport, the opposite is true: there is more administrative work, but then again the proportion of kilometres where autonomous or convoy driving takes place is limited," VIL said.
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