Truck and Track Autumn 2023 www.truckandtrack.com 34 INTERMODAL TRANSPORT SOFTWARE No future-proof transport At the beginning of the last century, transport companies were faced with an important choice. Should they or should they not exchange their horse and cart for a motorised vehicle? It is no different with digitisation than with motorisation. Anyone who wants to survive progress has no choice but to invest in modern technologies for route planning & optimisation. I regularly see them when visiting transport companies: beautiful black and white photos of grandfather or great-grandfather who started the company with a horse and cart. If I make one comment about the photos, I get to hear the accompanying stories in scents and colours. They are always beautiful stories that make it clear how deep the love for transport runs in the family. The founder’s descendant always mentions one turning point in the history of the transport company: the purchase of the first truck. That must have been a difficult choice at the beginning of the last century. A truck was undoubtedly a huge investment at the time. Would it ever be recouped? In retrospect, we can only conclude that the choice to motorise the transport fleet was the right one. Autonomous trucks Today we are facing the next step: the use of trucks without a driver. Truck manufacturers are already experimenting with autonomous driving trucks in various locations around the world. These are complex processes that demand a lot from new digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and the internet of things (IoT). Autonomous trucks must be able to respond immediately to unexpected events. And there are
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