A 21st century revolution is surely underway. Although still at pilot stage, the autonomous vehicles revolution of the courier operations industry is closer than you think.
Everywhere and nowhere
Autonomous driving seems to be everywhere, and yet, no one seems to have seen a single vehicle without a driver present – have you? Just what is going on, exactly? How far away is it realistically to see these vehicles deployed on a large scale across our road networks? Well, not that far away it seems, and your same day courier service may never be the same again.
What are the benefits?
As a business, small or large, when you employ a same day courier service, about 30% of the cost is attributed to the driver. Add to that, decent drivers are hard to come by, but that is a problem that autonomous vehicles can surely alleviate.
Autonomous vehicles run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and don’t need a pit stop, or any sort of respite, so autonomous drivers are looking like a positive step forward for all concerned. Courier services such as the Same Day Courier Service provided by All About Freight would be revolutionised with the introduction of autonomous vehicles, or AVs for short. A pilot, sitting at head office for security reasons, could directly manage several vehicles at once out on the open road.
What’s the downside?
It goes without saying that autonomous vehicles need to be safe. As of today, they are not yet advanced enough to be able to identify all objects, or predict others’ movements to counter their approach. Decision making needs some further development, but it is just a matter of time, building up knowledge with interactions for all circumstances possible. Explore Britain’s advances in AV via https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/engineering/11502870/Will-Britain-be-in-the-driving-seat-for-autonomous-cars.html.
Regulations and cyber security are two other areas that warrant further investigation. Make the legislation too strict, and the revolution will be slower. Too relaxed, and a disaster could strike. Getting the balance right is key to a successful implementation, providing benefits across business and society.
With all the challenges met, how can autonomous vehicles revolutionise courier operations? With great ease, it seems. The right investment from some of the bigger courier service companies could see autonomous services take a huge step forward over the coming years.