A new study by global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan indicates that a growing variety of Start-up trucking ventures are fomenting broad change in the global trucking industry – altering everything from how trucks operate, including driving themselves, to how freight shipments are booked, paid for, and moved.
In the firm’s report, entitled, Start-ups Disrupting Global Connected Truck Market 2016-2017 Kar said there is a “huge upside for improvement [in trucking] for it is not the most optimized industry – there are so many moving parts moving at sub-optimal speeds.”
He added that consumers and shippers today are being “born into reality called Amazon” where the low-cost yet extremely speedy delivery of all manner of goods is now an everyday expectation.
“That’s why these Start-up trucking operations are moving the needle and driving the innovation,” he pointed out. “They are here to drive efficiencies, drive opportunities to lower TCO [total cost of operations], enhance safety, and to increase revenue potential for [industry] stakeholders.”
Driver shortage will be a big problem going forward for Start-up trucking companies as well as established companies as an aging qualified over the road group of drivers are nearing retirement and looking to get off of the road. Having a supply of qualified and capable driver force to call upon will be difficult due to regulations and the training and qualifications required to get into the commercial trucking business.