Driverless vehicles beaming through the air and capsules transporting goods in the blink of an eye. Sounds like a sci-fi movie? The truth is, the future is not very far away. Perhaps, we won’t see flying cars quite yet. However, with advanced science and technology, road freight vehicles are becoming smarter, greener, and more efficient. In this blog post, I share some of my thoughts on road freight and the future, and how Greencarrier Freight Services UK contributes to smarter road freight alternatives.
Road freight and the future: Emerging technologies
The digitisation of business processes and supply chains is one of the most dominant trends in the global business community. In the not-so-distant future, every organisational unit will experience the transformational change of innovative information technologies and the business models they enable.
Today, automated and connected vehicle technologies are among the most heavily researched automotive technologies. What we see now is only a fraction of what will be developed for the future. From a UK perspective, I think Brexit will force a major push for many companies toward automation, specifically within customs procedures, and toward a globally harmonised system.
The major global truck manufacturers are starting to invest in electric vehicle technology and preparing to put the first generation of electric trucks on the road. In late 2017, Tesla Inc. introduced its electric Tesla Semi with production planned for 2019 and Volvo Trucks recently delivered its first all-electric trucks in Sweden.
Also, autonomous technologies will have a dramatic influence on logistics in general and road freight in particular. Driverless trucks could very well be a regular presence on many roads within the next 10 years. We already see prototypes of self-driving cars being tested out, for example by Google, Uber, and Apple as well as by most car manufacturers.
Blockchain technology is another huge trend that has exciting potential for road freight. It may solve some of the most difficult problems in trucking with benefits such as efficient supply chains and simplified collaboration between carriers in a secure network. As annual spending on is expected to reach 8.6 billion Euro by 2021, it is only a matter of time before we can start seeing some of the benefits of blockchain technology.
Sustainability drives technologies and innovation forward
At Greencarrier Freight Services, sustainability is our greatest responsibility and number one priority. Transport companies cannot continue depleting resources in the same way they have for years, now that we are all aware of the cost to our planet and health. In other words, we need to avoid depleting our natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.
Focusing on sustainability is also key to driving the development of emerging technologies and innovation forward. One way of contributing to smarter road freight alternatives is our effort to continuously develop and improve our fleet of eco-friendly trucks in the UK.
Contributing to smarter road freight alternatives
Greencarrier Freight Services UK offers a sophisticated and energy-efficient trucking solution with high technological advancements.
Our fleet of 22 trucks and 100 trailers is on a telematics system, which enables us to monitor and control driver behaviour. The telematics system dramatically improves key areas such as reduced idle time, driving within economy, cruise control usage, and engine load time.
All trucks are fitted with air deflector kits for the purpose of reducing drag, which in turn improves fuel efficiency and reduces carbon dioxide emissions.
Our trucks and trailers run on engines based on the latest EU standards for decreased emissions and all of our drivers are CPC certified. A CPC certificate is a European recognised accreditation that includes a module for safe and efficient driving behaviour, also reducing the environmental impact.
Our fleet operates across the UK, Nordics, Baltics and mainland Europe for both FTL and LTL. We also offer consolidation to maximise speed and efficiency and minimise the mileage we have to cover for each shipment.
Benefits of Greencarrier Freight Services eco trucking solution
With high technological advancements, our eco trucking solution provides major benefits in terms of improved efficiency and reduced environmental impact. We are also able to provide our customers with emission reports and help with ensuring a concerted effort to reduce their own environmental impact. With lower emissions, a knock-on benefit is a higher economy return from the truck – savings that are passed onto the customer in reduced overall transport costs.
The road to the future may be winding but not long
With the future being just around the corner, and trucks and trailers being at the heart of European economic activity, I am very excited to see where the road will take us!
The road may be winding, but as the speed of change and improvement of technology in road freight has been extremely fast over the past couple of decades, it may not be long.
As of Greencarrier Freight Services – who knows where our sustainability focus and the emerging technologies and innovations will lead us? Perhaps, replacing our fleet with electric trucks is not as far away as we may think?
What road freight solutions would you like to see in the future? Please, sound off in the comments! If you want to learn more about our eco trucking solution, visit Greencarrier Freight Services’ website.
