Autonomous

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Gridiron rises on the roof of Kenworth Truck Co.’s assembly plant here as a new structure takes shape to automate the storage and retrieval of painted truck cabs, sleepers and hoods awaiting trim, while down below the company continues building trucks — but at a reduced rate since last year.

Quite often when we use the word “health” in stories, it refers to company profits, freight demand or the economy at large. Similarly, many of our stories involving truck drivers have to do with pay and turnover. That is what you expect from a business-to-business publication.

It might astound you to realize that Apple’s iPhone has only been around for eight years. In that time, it has revolutionized not just the market for mobile devices, but also the very manner in which people consume information. The question of what — if anything — could bring that level of technological change to the trucking industry in the same period of time was recently posed to a group of industry insiders, and the results may not be what you expect.

Readers of Transport Topics see stories every week that involve the different ways trucking companies, industry suppliers and government regulators all aim to improve highway safety. So signs of progress should not be a surprise.