Trucking’s future looks great — for those who can adapt

From Daimler’s self-driving truck reveal: A driver taking care of other tasks on his iPad while his truck drives itself down the highway.From Daimler’s self-driving truck reveal: A driver taking care of other tasks on his iPad while his truck drives itself down the highway.

As you have read in recent weeks, technological changes — and big ones — are coming to trucking.

And as reported last week, the outlook for freight, trucking revenues and the industry in general is very positive for the next decade, according to a recent report by the American Trucking Associations, who expects trucking’s share of freight to grow, freight itself to grow and revenues to nearly double by 2025. 

Combine that expected growth with rapidly changing technology and you have a time of upheaval in trucking, writes Overdrive Equipment Editor Jack Roberts in a column on OD sister site CCJ.

Roberts predicts the industry will change more in the next 10 to 20 years than it has in the last 50. 

But the good news is there’s plenty of money to be made in all of this change, Roberts writes, despite big challenges facing the industry, such as volatile fuel prices, ever-increasing regulation, changing vehicle technology, higher operating costs, dire infrastructure needs and a (debatable) shortage of drivers.

Roberts explores all of those issues in the full write-up on CCJ.

However, freight’s going to be moving in 2025, he writes, and there will be money behind it: The question is will you be one of the ones hauling it?

It’ll take owner-operators wise enough and savvy enough to figure out the changes and use them to their advantage who will thrive in the new environment, Roberts writes.

Click here to read his full piece.