How Autonomous Vehicles Are Changing Logistics

 Some vehicles today are unmanned, autonomous, and highly automated and don’t require a person to drive them. The equipment covered are not only cars, but also trucks, trains, equipment for farms, and warehouse forklifts. The system in charge of such vehicles handles the decisions, checks the environment, and makes sure the movements are secure. Although those in unmanned transport want full autonomy, it requires going through five distinct steps of automation. At the very first level, a human is in charge of everything; on the other hand, level five, the system handles it all on its own.

Now, the advanced companies aren’t ready to provide crucial components of their solutions because they are only ideas at this stage. The use of autonomous trucks at industrial and warehouse locations on Russian roads goes back several years, which matches all aspects of the fifth principle of autonomy. The company will also produce materials at such large quantities.

Right now, the States and big companies are working hard to bring in innovations. Businesses are already wide adopting autonomous mobile cars within factory facilities and warehouse complexes. Rather than waiting until future autonomous car technologies, businesses are proactively applying current developments into new business lines.

New era of transport logistics

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For the first time, transportation experts are trying to use all these modern tools at once- "smart" cars, new transportation model, digital roads, and the proper rules and laws. Other companies, including Russian Post, X5 Retail Group, PEK, Avtodor, KAMAZ and others, along with the idea of continuous and unmanned transport, plan to test new technology, solutions and standards, in order to eventually use them on the country’s main car transport corridors by the year 2030, when they will cover a total length of 19.5 thousand km.

Even though regulatory standards are an important parameter, they are delaying the expansion of driverless cars into public roads. But in the area of industrial facilities and warehouse complexes, autonomous moving vehicles are already making progress and being used widely in businesses. Due to the fact that companies aren’t delaying their new projects until unmanned vehicles are introduced, but are already starting to use current advances.

Benefits of Autonomous Trucking

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Many reasons have brought about significant shifts in the freight transportation field because of unmanned transport. First of all, it helps to cut costs in logistics. Businesses are already wide adopting autonomous mobile cars within factory facilities and warehouse complexes. Rather than waiting until future autonomous car technologies, businesses are proactively applying current developments into new business lines. What makes businesses aim to use smart investments for innovation. Large companies that are able to subsidize heavily and focus on long-term results now manufacture the lion's share of the flagships

Yet, the growth of the trend towards unmanned technology is due to the activities of main industry players. In addition, it allows businesses to overcome the critical need for more truck drivers. Up to now, there is a shortfall of experts in the field by 21%. Thus, there can be as much as 5% of unused travel in company vehicles. As a result, the logistics industry lacks funds to deliver cargo on time, which means there are delays and extra costs. Changes will become noticeable for businesses as well as for regular shoppers.

Autonomous Trucks by Subscription

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It has been pointed out by experts that average trucks frequently encounter various vehicle breakdowns along roads. Driving trucks without crews is a good way to solve the driver shortage. Also, companies may ask if it is necessary to hire staff to do the driving. Management has not expected any radical changes among the staff at this point in time; however, it will now be implementing professional retraining programs for drivers. For instance, the Moscow Technical School along with many Moscow firms and top universities recently offered to train specialists in the “Unmanned Transport” field.

One more important advantage of unmanned transport is that it is safer than manned transport. Distraction, exhaustion, or simple driver error usually raises the rate of an accident, be it a truck or any other vehicle. The study found that transport by autopilot reduces accidents and injury to violators by more than half in relation to accidents by drunken drivers or breakers of traffic regulations.EvoCargo trucks, which have run autonomously for the last three years, have shown zero accidents.

Conclusion

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Also, electricity makes charging 2.5 times cheaper than fuel or oil. Moreover, alternative fuel consumption prevents the emission of toxic gases into the environment, thereby rendering transport climate-friendly and also facilitating companies in complying with ESG standards. Next, it lets the company divide its depreciation and maintenance and repair costs from its expenses. In particular, by making use of these unique qualities, our logistics service can achieve savings of up to 37% on logistics costs. It’s important to realize that the service model is responsible for these impressive results nowadays.

Now, a situation exists in which a company can rely on logistics vendors to handle all its supply chain activities. You can easily respond to various tasks because the service model is simple and flexible. For instance, when operating in a particular area it is important to ensure unbroken delivery services 24 hours a day or change a van to fit containers with a chosen size – for this situation, the service comes up with the proper solution and executes it. Although the logistics sector is very competitive and businesses must constantly update their procedures, autonomous trucks are starting to change things and make logistics operation more efficient and more flexible.