Truck stops should swap potato chips for microchips to appease their future customers: robot drivers.
What happened: Autonomous trucking company Gatik is expanding its Southern Ontario fleet, and will have 50 of its trucks making deliveries for Loblaws by the end of next year — quite the jump from the five-truck fleet it’s been testing in Brampton, Ontario, since 2022.
Big picture: While Gatik’s box trucks are focused on short-haul, middle-mile delivery — ferrying loaves of bread to distribution centres and such — self-driving tech will soon be in semis. Ontario approved a 10-year pilot program just last month that will allow trucks weighing over 4,500 kilograms to hit public roadways without a flesh and blood driver.
Why it matters: Trucking is a vital part of Canada’s supply chain, but the isolated, unhealthy life associated with trucking means younger folks aren’t lining up to rejuvenate the aging workforce, a third of which were 55+ in 2022. Self-driving trucks could alleviate this pressure.
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Last quarter, there were 12,615 job vacancies in transportation trucking. While that’s down over 50% from a record high seen in Q2 of 2022, concerns remain as transport businesses project higher demand and inadequate training has led to more collisions.
Yes, but: There might be many job vacancies, but there’s also lots of employed workers. Beyond trucking, automated vehicles could put over 800,000 workers in Canada's transport at risk of job losses.
What’s next: The only provinces that currently allow fully-autonomous vehicles to be tested on public roads are Ontario and Québec, so nation-wide trucker-less trucking is still a way’s away.—QH