Technology has found its way into almost every part of life, and the trucking industry is not immune to this trend. The growing embracement of advanced technology has fundamentally changed the landscape of the sector. Fleets are equipping themselves with new innovations to increase safety and efficiency and remain competitive.
Technology such as automation and predictive maintenance allows businesses to cut costs and stay ahead of the game, all leading to better trucking and better business.
This blog will explore the changes technology has brought, how the industry has embraced them, and how you can look into truck financing to help stay up to date and remain competitive by bringing new technologies to your trucking business.
Automation
Truck manufacturers are increasingly testing autonomous technologies for transport trucks. While there are still a number of bugs to work out, driverless trucks are a question of if, not when. Despite reports that we shouldn’t expect commercially viable autonomous trucking to be rolled out en masse in the foreseeable future, it still doesn’t mean doom is on the horizon for drivers.
However, this doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity for this technology to co-exist with professional truck drivers. The focus of the testing of autonomous trucks is on taking away the dangerous and tedious parts of the job through driver assistance tools like lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control and lane centring. Truck crashes in the United States cost approximately $30 billion a year, and that doesn’t include increased insurance costs. New driver assistance tools will be able to increase driver safety significantly.
Alternative Fuels and Sustainability
Most industries are seeing trends shift towards more sustainable and energy-efficient options, and the latest trucking trends are no different. Consumers are eager to know what companies are doing to reduce their overall carbon footprint, and that includes trucking companies.
While zero-emission technology is still a ways off, trends are moving toward alternative fuels that can help move the industry away from diesel and help to lower carbon emissions and promote sustainability. Even more critical, these alternative fuels are ready today. Alternative fuel sources include compressed natural gas, renewable natural gas, ethanol, methanol, renewable diesel, hydrogen-based fuels and more.
The global alternative fuels market is expected to grow by $66.89 billion between 2022-2026, and some of the prime reasons driving that growth is the increasing use of natural gas, the adoption of fuel cells, and research on third-generation biofuels in the transportation sector.
Predictive Maintenance Technology
Supply chain issues continue to plague industries, making it more important than ever for owners to ensure their fleets are maintained. That’s part of the reason more businesses are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict maintenance issues in advance to prevent their trucks from breaking down and being offline for extended periods of time.
It makes sense. Rather than relying on conducting repairs and maintenance in reaction to a breakdown or basing them on intervals like mileage or time, AI can predict an impending failure or when something minor will escalate into a more severe problem. This can lower repair costs and maximize uptime.
Failure to implement this technology can leave fleet owners behind. In addition to the money saved by avoiding expensive repairs, using predictive maintenance technology can become a selling point and differentiate one business from another. Fleet managers embracing this AI can offer guaranteed on-time deliveries to their customers.
A growing embrace of technology will help to improve efficiency, safety, performance, and reliability, and allow fleets to stay competitive. WiseCap will be here to help our clients meet the growing technological demands of the industry. We’re ready to help our clients with whatever financing needs they have, whether they need commercial truck loans or are looking for consumer financing services. Contact us today, and we’ll explore how we can help you meet the demands of the industry and grow your business.