A good reminder that readiness isn't about the trucks — it's about the systems behind them. #FutureOfFreight #Innovation #TechInTrucking #AI #Charger https://lnkd.in/gJEyQ3T4
Aurora signed Charger Logistics for driverless hauls on Dallas to Laredo. Second-generation trucks. Charger Logistics Inc. qualified for a reason nobody is going to report. They wrote their own TMS, so when Aurora needed a carrier whose systems could actually tender a load to a truck with no driver in it, there was one sitting there ready. That is not a small filter. Seven months ago McLeod Software had to ship a dedicated API integration before its own customers could book Aurora capacity at all. Thousands of carriers on that TMS, and none of them could buy autonomous capacity until their vendor built the connection for them. So the constraint moved. It is not the trucks and it has not been for about two years. It is whether your stack can transact with one. That never makes a board deck, because it turns an Aurora timeline into your integration backlog. And the freight raises the cost of getting it wrong. Charger's president named temperature-controlled and pharmaceutical. Picture a reefer alarm at 2am on I-35 with an empty seat: the acknowledgement, the corrective action, the custody record all have to come from software, because there is no one to call. Most planning engines are not close. They hardcode hours of service, so an asset with none either gets rejected or gets planned wrong quietly. Exception paths still terminate at a phone number for the cab. Carrier and 3PL tech leaders: if a driverless lane opened on your busiest corridor next quarter, could you tender to it without a manual workaround? I do not think most of you can. I would like to be wrong. #AutonomousTrucking #TransportationTechnology #LogisticsTech #TMS #SupplyChain