For some time now, Noël Perry, a senior consultant at FTR, has been prophesying about how emerging technologies will enhance shipping capacity in the coming years, and he again repeated his message at his company's annual transportation conference in Indianapolis last week.
Trucking capacity shortage won't last long
Capacity tightened in recent years, especially for trucks. Signs of the capacity shortage are all over, and the issue could negatively impact shippers, manufacturers and retailers. No one enjoys a stretch of limitations on shipping efficiency. However, government regulation and a shortage of drivers, among other factors, have contributed to shrinking capacity. According to Perry, though, within the coming years, emergent technology will alter the trucking industry by significantly improving capacity.
"Emergent technology will alter the trucking industry."
"We are about to be saved sometime over the next 10 years by radical advances in technology, exactly the kind you are about to hear about the rest of the day," he explained at the 2015 ALK Transportation Technology Summit, according to CCJ Magazine.
Perry noted that technology enhancements will improve fuel efficiency, safety and driver costs, as well as the fact that these advancements will result in savings of more than $1 per mile, the news outlet reported. And he was at it again when, at the FTR Transportation Conference, he stated the industry is "on the cusp of a productivity revolution," according to the Journal of Commerce (JOC).
Perry believes new technologies will alter trucking
Some of these technologies are already in use, such as smartphone apps that are changing the way truck drivers and shippers work. Cargomatic, for example, employs a cargo-matching system while Cargo Chief helps with finding capacity in a way that is similar to a travel booking website, the news outlet explained. Start-ups like those above, as well as large technology companies, are producing technology that could vastly alter the cargo shipping landscape a decade from now.
"Maybe five or ten years we'll be talking about a very different industry," Perry told attendees at the conference, according to the JOC. "We'll have abundant capacity, and an industry smaller in terms of physical output, but larger in terms of value output."
Perry believes that while truck capacity will substantially increase soon, the numbers for freight tell a different story. Intermodal hit a prerecession volume peak in 2012 he explained, adding that rail cargo won't again hit its previous peak until around 2030. Air and barge capacity growth will also prove slower than for truckers.