By Seth Clevenger, Staff Reporter This story appears in the Nov. 18 print edition of Transport Topics.
Fleet executives are scheduled to gather next month to examine how current and future technologies can transform the trucking industry.
American Trucking Associations’ Executive Summit on Technology-Driven Performance will include discussions on a variety of technologies, including predictive analytics and driverless vehicles.
“The summit promises to be a ‘can’t miss’ event for fleet executives interested in the future of this industry,” ATA President Bill Graves said of the Dec. 4-6 meeting in Irving, Texas, just outside Dallas.
Keynote speakers Anthony Levandowski, engineering director for the Google driverless car, and Chunka Mui, CEO of The Devil’s Advocate Group, will kick off the summit with a discussion of autonomous vehicles.
“I really do think the opening session will open the eyes of a lot of folks to what’s happening and what’s coming down the road,” said Jeff Mason, ATA’s senior vice president of image and communications.
The final day of the summit will bring together executives with truck manufacturers to discuss the technological advancements they are developing.
Scheduled to appear are David Hames of Daimler Trucks North America, Dennis Mooney of Navistar International Corp., Terry Billings of Volvo Trucks and Kevin Baney of Kenworth Truck Co.
The session, which will include comments on the SuperTruck project from Paul Menig, CEO of Tech-I-M, will be moderated by Howard Abramson, Transport Topics’ publisher and editorial director.
Mason said the summit will provide a “senior management-level briefing on some of the disruptive technologies that are impacting trucking fleets and how they will affect future safety, fuel economy and operations.”
Other scheduled speakers include representatives from major trucking fleets such as UPS Inc., Con-way Inc., Ryder Supply Chain Solutions, Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. and
Southeastern Freight Lines Inc., as well as executives from PepsiCo and Mattel Inc.
In addition, technology suppliers will discuss how companies can use the data collected by their systems to improve their operations and meet shippers’ demands for more visibility and control across the supply chain.
“The integration of that data and information is allowing for greater efficiencies and faster decision-making,” Mason said.
The event is the successor to last year’s ATA summit in Arlington, Va., where executives delved into the subject of natural gas as a fuel for trucking.
More details about this year’s summit are available at http://aes.trucking.org.
