This week, I essayed a piece on the EU's new law....that says in the very near future (likely to be four years away)....truckers from across all of the EU will be getting 'equal pay' and overnight truckers will get hotel rooms compliments of the company. Since that news piece, I've gone to a couple of forums and read commentary by truckers, and freight operations people.
One guy came to point out a consequence of this EU law. As he said....freight movement could be going up by forty-to-fifty percent.....if equal pay and hotel rooms are part of the future of freight movement in Europe.
As he pointed out....a significant amount of research is going on with driverless buses, cars, and freight trucks. Generally, everyone expects driverless cars to be introduced on the road by 2025. This past summer, I had a chance to observe a driverless bus (big enough for 15 passengers) operating in Wiesbaden. The driverless freight vehicles? It's a slightly bigger deal and people are generally predicting a longer period of introduction. However.....if this equal-pay deal and hotel situation were being pushed....this guy suggested that the big freight companies would start dumping money into research and get the driverless freight trucks earlier.
The impact here? Well....you could have driverless freight vehicles on the road, and no need for discussion over equal-pay or hotel offerings. Yep, you could have X-truck running 24 hours a day, with no breaks, no hotel cost, and no equal-pay.
So as this guy suggested at the end....the EU didn't really help the truck drivers....they just speeded up the process where human freight drivers won't be necessary. It might be ten years away, but you can anticipate that driverless freight movement will occur.
As I always stress with the EU business.....as much as they want you to think they are helping you.....there's this 20-percent chance that they are screwing you over.
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