There are few industries that have more room to benefit from automation than transportation and logistics (the best examples including healthcare and scientific experimentation), and this is due not only to the complexity of the processes involved but also how arduous and drawn-out they are. Most, unfortunately, modern technology doesn’t allow us to teleport items back and forth, as much as that dream has shown up time and time again in science fiction.
The heart of freight transportation, then, is the same as it’s been for many hundreds of years: ships, planes, trucks, and vans. The improvements have been incremental, concentrating on the logistics of transportation. Vehicles have become faster and more efficient, routes have been mapped better, and border controls have found ways to accelerate the legal considerations.
The dawn of the digital age took things up a notch, and corporations now have always-on data connections to underpin their operations (even out at sea using modern satellite systems). And with everything in place to support it, logistics automation is set to go on to bigger and better things in the coming years. In this piece, we’ll look ahead to what’s coming.
IoT monitoring as standard for freight of all varieties
The internet of things has made huge strides in recent years, and it’s now considered entirely pedestrian to link almost anything to the cloud. As tracking chips become cheaper and companies become more familiar with using tracking software, we’ll surely see further advancements in the vital field of shipping management.
Soon enough, it won’t be an optional extra with selecting for high-value items: it’ll be a fundamental element of freight, with every container featuring a tracking chip with an associated blockchain log to confirm every step of the journey. This will make it much easier to determine fault in cases of items being damaged or lost.
Improved warehousing and space utilization
Using warehouse space effectively isn’t the only important part of the transportation process, because vehicle space must also be used exceptionally well. Any unused space on a vessel that could have supported more cargo will ultimately be a waste — there was surely something that space could have accomplished.
It’s already thought that the future of aviation could be modular, and this would certainly impact other forms of transport. Could automated systems eventually be responsible for moving common module designs between varying vehicle types? Standardization of module types could allow smooth automated handovers, and minimize the space wasted in the process.
Chatbots enhancing internal and external comms
Another area in which automation has a lot to offer is communication. With so much data being collected through IoT systems (and manually logged through shipping staff where necessary), the manner in which that data is used will be very significant. So how will those staff members keep track of it? And how will customers track their orders?
We’ve seen how chatbot software has overhauled tracking in the eCommerce world, and an all-in-one chatbot platform for the transportation industry could work internally and externally to minimize the required conversation, seamlessly handle language barriers, and improve operational security and safety (particularly important now that there’s COVID-19 requirements to be met, with contactless handling and processing being desirable wherever possible).
Further optimization in route management
Automated logistics systems can already factor in smart route generation (it’s relatively simple in the ocean where the only obstacles stem from weather conditions and other vehicles that can be geo-tracked), but it should get even better over time as more and more environmental factors are accounted for — something that will be made possible through widespread data sharing.
Resource optimization will also occur through selecting more sustainable fuels where possible. It should be simple to put journey parameters into an automated system and receive a full guide including the vehicle size needed and the shortest (or cheapest) route. This may sound questionably useful when you’re dealing with vehicles of set sizes, but if modular automation indeed becomes mainstream, there can be standardized vehicle cores of variable power.
The eventual implementation of unmanned ships
Despite various high-profile tests in recent years (mostly successes, all things considered), it’s incredibly hard to see self-driving cars being fully embraced in the near future. The legal ramifications are too confusing and will require a lot of unpacking before any progress can be made. But that isn’t the case with other types of transport, such as sea transport.
Moving relatively slowly amidst much less traffic, ships are much better positioned to be automatically piloted. They’ll still need to be crewed, realistically — but likely with skeleton crews. Are we going to see self-piloted ships become common in the next decade? Perhaps not, but they’re nowhere near as far off as their equivalents in road transport or aviation.
We haven’t considered all possible angles for automation here, of course, as that would take far longer — but we’ve been through some of the most notable things we can expect to see in the future. It’s almost more interesting to think about what parts can’t viably be automated. One day, it’s very likely to be the ethical implications that hold companies back from going further, so it’ll be fascinating to see how it all pans out.
