Autonomous driving, EVs, and connectivity
These were the buzzwords and key themes at the IAA, one of the largest European trade fairs for truck and component manufacturers. Last week, I spent a few days in Hannover. Traditionally, this fair has been all about tough men and their machines. This year, however, the focus shifted to sustainability, autonomous driving, and connectivity. There were test drives in electric trucks, charging solutions from various providers—everything you could imagine.
As the son of a farmer who grew up on a crop farm, one thing that stood out to me was the autonomous tractor from Krone. It looked strange—no cab, no steering wheel. But then it clicked: the field is the perfect environment for autonomous driving. No traffic, just plowing or mowing in straight lines.
German Economy and Climate Minister Habeck, came to the Krone stand with a large press delegation and announced that Germany is leading the way in autonomous driving. He mentioned two of our partners, Krone and ZF, as industrial leaders in this field.
Autonomous driving has been on our agenda for a while too. We’re already working on digitizing goods transfers so that no human intervention is needed. At Lamb Weston, the fries go straight from the conveyor belt into the trailer. At container terminals, there’s no one there to sign anything, and the driver gets an interchange receipt from a kiosk.
These are interesting process points for us to link with e-CMR handling so that the paperwork is automatically taken care of at the point of handover—without the drivers needing to do anything. This fits perfectly with our motto: “Drivers and paperwork don’t make a good combination.”
We share this knowledge with truck manufacturers as well. PACCAR launched its new marketplace and app store, PACCAR Connect. at the IAA. They’re now the first truck manufacturer to offer a connectivity platform by default, where drivers can work on an integrated tablet even outside the vehicle. This tablet syncs with the fixed unit in the truck. Transport managers can push apps of their choice to the drivers via an MDM (Mobile Device Management) system. The initial sales figures are promising. Many field tablets have already been delivered with the purchase of new trucks. New and existing DAF trucks (as old as 2015!) can be equipped with this option.
Through our own app and partner model, we’re now even more connected with drivers. When a carrier uses its own app or a fleet management app like ZF Transics, TIS, LBase, Logi-App, Data2Track of Modality Truck App, e-CMRs can also be processed within the PACCAR Connect platform. Now we just need to ensure the process is robust enough to handle changing drivers.
As a company based in Brabant, we’re excited to contribute to the further development of such functionalities. Our ambition is to tell you more about it next year at Transport and Logistics in Munich or at the next IAA in Hannover. Want to know more? Make an appointment via the contactform on our website.
