Picture this: it’s August 26, 2046, and you’re getting ready for Labor Day weekend with your family.
Your wife is cooking meat that was grown in a laboratory while you’re playing video games on your Virtual Reality machine, and your son is on his way. See, your son’s a trucker. He drives an electric truck… a flying truck… a flying electric truck, made out of fully recycled materials… The truck has wings…
Okay, okay, sorry. I got a little carried away. It’s too easy to get excited about imagining the power of futuristic technologies.
But it raises a good question, what is the future actually going to look like?
More importantly, what will the trucking industry look like in 50 years?
Are there going to be self-driving trucks, electric trucks, or will there be no trucks at all?
This is my prediction for what the trucking industry will look like in 25 years.
First of all, There Will Still Be Truckers in 2070
Remember when you were a kid and they told you that by the time you grew up, there’d be flying cars?
Though some sources say that there’s a 50% chance that truckers will be replaced by automated jobs in just the next few decades, the actual progress on self-driving cars hasn’t been all that spectacular.
It’s possible that by 2050, self-driving cars will be much more common, but if we’re going solely off of the data that we have right now, truckers aren’t going anywhere.
Barring a large-scale global collapse, there will always be people who need sensitive goods shipped around the country. It’s going to take time before people entrust their sensitive and fragile items in the “hands” of a robot.
Electric Trucks Will Be Everywhere
Right now, there are around 7 million electric cars on the road. This number is increasing exponentially, not gradually. These cars aren’t going anywhere, and they’re only getting better, faster, more efficient, and more affordable. It’s not far-fetched to suggest that not only will electric cars be everywhere 25 years from now, but so will electric trucks.
With global climate change not going anywhere, it’s inevitable that the trucking industry will be affected by both laws and products that are designed to help preserve the earth.
As the electric trucks begin to catch up in quality to their gas-guzzling counterparts, it’s inevitable that there will be more electric trucks.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t more electric trucks than gas guzzlers.
Tech Will Still Replace Some Jobs
Though it’s likely that there will still be truck drivers 25 years from now, automation is still going to take some jobs from truckers.
In fact, technology is probably going to change the playing field more in terms of competition in the trucking market. As complex software becomes more largely available, it’s likely that trucking brokerages will completely disappear.
Some large companies will emerge as industry leaders, but because there won’t
There will be no more empty routes, hardly any paperwork, and much fewer idle trucks. Technology is designed to make our lives easier, and as it becomes a larger and larger part of the trucking industry, efficiency will become one of the highest priorities for trucking companies.
Closing Thoughts
As interesting as it is to dream about flying cars, total automation, and technology eliminating entire industries, trucking isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
As long as there is a global network for people to ship items, there is going to be a need for people to facilitate and execute the operations of a shipping business. In the next 25 years, the trucking industry is going to go through some big changes, but perhaps not as many as you might think.
Now, if you were to ask us about the trucking industry 50 years from now, that’s a completely different story.
I mean, if you asked someone in 1950 about the future of technology, I’m sure that “the internet” was the last thing that they’d ever have thought of.
Perhaps the next revolutionary invention on the horizon doesn’t even exist yet. Only time will tell.
