The next couple of decades are going to require that the Australian trucking industry has to do some serious thinking outside the box.
In the last 60 or 70 years there has been a lot of development of equipment, business models, infrastructure, the economy, all of which the trucking industry has coped with and thrived on.
New ways of doing business, new ways of stacking pallets, new ways of building trucks, new ways of connecting trailers, all of these have come along and the industry has always been smart in adapting and moving with the latest fashions and with trying to use cutting edge technology to improve productivity.
We were always thinking outside the box, but it was a very specific box. One of the core things within that box was the fact that a vehicle with rubber tires and a diesel engine would carry or pull whatever it was that we were shifting. That was then, but this is now
We are now having to think outside of an even bigger box. The change in the way that we power our vehicles is likely to have a much more dramatic effect on the way we do business than we are thinking at the moment.
This is why we really have to start thinking outside the box. Changes will come when diesel power is no longer at the core of our business, it is going to radically change everything. The fact of the matter is that the introduction of electric power, recharging, fuel cells, hydrogen, hydrogen internal combustion etc, is going to change the parameters within which the trucking industry has to work. Just because because we are using a different power source.
Therefore, smart operators will actually change what they do and how they do it. Because timings, distances, driver fatigue, driver behaviour, all of these will change because the nature of the vehicle has changed.
The move from diesel to electric, or whatever we use, is a radical change and the adaptation process may take some time, but we will get there in the end. You can be sure that in 10 or 20 years time the Australian trucking industry will still be a world leader in productivity and efficiency. However, we need to be ready now for what’s going to happen to the industry. We need to start thinking about it deeply.
This is why I was pleased to see one of last week’s announcement from NatRoad and Bridgestone, who will be sponsoring an E-Learning package for operators who are wanting to learn how to adapt to the new zero emissions world, into which we are heading faster than you think.
It’s time to start really thinking outside of the box.
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