The North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) released its latest report, titled “More Regional Haul: An Opportunity for Trucking?”
“If you ask most people to define trucking, words like ‘over the road’ and ‘long haul’ are likely to be part of the description. But the reality is that 45% of the Class 8 tractors produced today are day cabs, and a high percentage of those trucks are involved in regional haul operations,” says Rick Mihelic, NACFE’s director of future technologies and study team manager.
In the report, NACFE says several forces have come together that have the potential to lead to a more regional movement of goods. Those factors include:
- Driver hiring and retention;
- Growth in e-commerce;
- The push towards immediate delivery;
- Growth in GPS based asset tracking systems (tractor, trailer, load and driver);
- Advances in technologies such as electric and hybrid vehicles;
- Vehicle automation;
- Innovations in load matching systems;
- Increased use of long combination vehicles;
- Data collection and mining;
- Vehicle specialization.
“Regional operations means drivers are more likely to get home on a regular basis and that could help the industry with its the driver recruitment and retention problem,” says Mike Roeth, NACFE executive director.
The report is available on NACFE’s website.
