Moving America Forward - Next Generation of Truck Freight Transport

Session 1 - Digitization in Logistics & Supply Chain 

Co-Chairs: John Paul MacDuffie & Stephen Burks

Supply chain (SC) management received early investment in technologies such as ERP to streamline transactions, improve warehouse management, and sharpen analytics -- but largely within existing silos. The next wave of digitalization aims to integrate the entire supply chain by linking cross-functional data from internal and external sources; providing transparency (with real-time updates) into inventory, shipments, and scheduling for all SC participants; and applying machine learning to both problem-solving and forecasting. New digital applications promise more seamless integration via a new emergent ecosystem that links large industrial companies with sophisticated logistics providers and tech start-ups. Barriers to progress are often organizational since new approaches to sharing data and collaborating with SC partners are needed to take advantage of new capabilities. Trucking is an early adopter of digital technologies but also has a long way to go before the potential of digitalization is reached.

Session 2 - The Next Generation of Freight & Truck Drivers 

Co-Chairs: Steve Viscelli & Jean Tyrell

The trucking industry has long been a source of millions of jobs, many of them of high quality. For decades, however, the industry has routinely suffered from a shortage of drivers and working conditions, wages and the health of drivers in some segments have deteriorated. The quality of trucking jobs impact drivers, their families and communities, but also the public through effects on congestion, air quality and safety. This panel will explore the potential for making the industry safer, more efficient and a better place to work by look at the nature and origin of existing problems related to driver health, safety, wages and working conditions with an eye toward current trends, such as eCommerce and automation, and opportunities to ensure the next generation of trucking jobs are healthy, family-supporting ones.

Session 3 - Interstate 2.0: Planning, Finance & Implementation

Co-Chairs: Paolo Pezzotta & Jim Mullen

We explore financing scenarios of AV-enabled systems that are gradually introduced within existing driver fleet operations and alternatively, establishing a separate operations platform for high-speed dedicated lanes. This panel will answer questions on Who will own and operate these new lanes: government or the private sector or some PPP framework? What are financial models for leasing capacity and the implications of ownership on overall economic output and the distribution of financial gains.

Session 4 - Electrification & Fueling Future Freight 

Co-Chair: Mike Roeth

We are in the midst of an explosion of technologies aimed at efficiency and alternative power sources, including natural gas, which have made the shift from diesel easier for the industry to envision.  This panel will explore the challenges from the basic power needs of trucks to uncertainty about the return on investment in new technology to distribution systems for new fuels.

Session 5 - Automation, Vehicle Connectivity & Platooning 

Co-Chairs: Jeff Hickman & Steve Boyd

This panel will discuss the implementation and commercialization of automation and platooning technologies (by analyzing the technological feasibility, use cases and deployments, and the regulatory environment). Industry experts will identify pain points with unmanned truck development and testing and analyze near-term solutions. This panel will also examine different levels of autonomy and geographical locations of deployment.

Session 6 - Logistics of the Last Mile 

Co-Chairs: Erick Guerra & Mike Carroll

Digitization and vehicle automation present specific opportunities and challenges for last mile trucking. As automation reduces the cost of long-haul trucking, how will the process of moving goods from distribution warehouses to final destinations change? What are the implications for labor practices and public policy? Increases in package delivery are already putting a strain on existing city infrastructure. In Philadelphia and elsewhere, delivery trucks and vans regularly block parking spaces and travel lanes to unload goods. As more companies begin to outsource food and parcel deliveries to private entrepreneurs, what are the emerging opportunities and policy challenges for last-mile trucking and delivery?