Like other business organizations, even FedEx Corporation has faced labor shortages due to the worldwide pandemic. Recently, FedEx has announced a partnership with Aurora and PACCAR to launch a commercial pilot test of autonomous trucks in linehaul trucking operations.
This partnership aims at reducing dependence on physical labor. It is an industry-first collaboration that combines expertise in logistics, trucking, and autonomy to advance the safety and effectiveness of the flow of goods.
The growth of e-commerce has stimulated the demand for secure, robust transportation and logistics solutions throughout the stages of the supply chain cycle. FedEx believes that regular innovation and automation will promote more productivity, safety, and efficiency to the company, with more than 560,000 team members continuing to lead the world ahead.
Hence, FedEx joins hands with Aurora and PACCAR to launch and progress with autonomous vehicles and make them available soon in the market. The initial goal of the Aurora and PACCAR partnership was to improve freight efficiency and safety only for PACCAR’s customers.
The partnership is formed entirely on mutual trust and respect that share a vision to remodel transportation and recognize the perks of introducing self-driving technology in logistics and transport. The team is creating a deeply integrated self-driving truck through PACCAR’s Autonomous Vehicle Platform (AVP) that will help in delivering billions of FedEx packages per year.
PACCAR is a global technology giant in designing and manufacturing high-quality Class 8 trucks with excellent customer support. At the same time, Aurora is a self-driving tech firm that will embed its technology into PACCAR’s trucks.
FedEx is constantly improving its brand performance by relying on autonomy and autonomous robots. Previously, FedEx partnered with Berkshire Grey to implement its RPSi systems to sort out small packages efficiently.
Plan & Testing of the Pilot
The autonomous truck’s commercial pilot test will begin in the last week of September. Aurora will autonomously haul FedEx cargos with a safety driver within Dallas and Houston, a 500-mile round trip along the I-45 corridor.
Through the Aurora Driver Development Program, FedEx and PACCAR will demonstrate how the team is progressing and advancing by entering the exciting phase of “Refine and Pilot.”
By the end of 2023, the team will have launched the entire trucking business and hauled goods autonomously between locations without needing a safety driver.
With the Aurora Driver, the team has developed a trucking service and Driver-as-a-Solution business model with a computer system that understands how to optimize logistics via efficiency and speed positions securely to create a fully integrated service for fleets in a safe and timely manner.
How will this collaboration transform Logistics?
Since each one of us is buying and selling items online, logistics is crucial. In the post covid phase, many retail giants like Amazon struggle with shipping products online due to the labor and transport challenges.
Through the Aurora-FedEx-PACCAR partnership, the retail and business world will be able to offer more autonomous deliveries on time and with high-level safety. This collaboration is exceptional and highly beneficial to the world, making logistics uncomplicated, reliable, non-dependable, and more efficient.
