Who will carry your package?

Why driverless vehicles won’t become an automatic feature in the courier industry

Driverless cars are inevitable. With 10 million autonomous cars predicted to be on the road by 2020 and billions being invested in it by the likes of Google, Apple and Tesla – we know it will happen. So the question here isn’t will driverless cars hit it off, but when?

Once they have become the fully predicted mainstay on our own Scottish roads, how will driverless vehicles affect the industries which require road-faring transport the most?

The background

There are a huge number of people currently employed in the driverless car industry with teams of 100 being headhunted at a time, and the UK in particular leading Europe’s contribution, with the Westminster government setting aside £100m for investment, even during difficult economic times.

Why would we want driverless cars? The number one answer is that it could allow increasingly time-poor and stressed people to get on with other tasks whilst commuting.

Further mooted attractions include improved traffic management, as automated cars will make judgements based on behaviour of traffic. Using best practice guidance from the DVLA, they will likely have a less harmful impact on the environment.

However, there are a number of obvious flaws with driverless vehicles that should be raised, with the majority centring on how they will react to often illogical human or animal behaviour.

For example, posed with a child suddenly running in front of the vehicle on the road and busy crowds on the adjoining pavements, would you really want to leave the decision of which way to swerve to a machine?

We’ll leave the moral dilemmas to the engineers and politicians. But we can pay attention to how driverless vehicles will affect industry.

A viable option for business?

For personal use, this seems like a clever move. You could “drive” to work, eat your breakfast and answer emails all at the same time without worry of crashing (or so you’d hope).

Businesses with transport at the core are naturally looking on with real interest.

Taxi firms are looking at replacing drivers with automated cars, and at first you see the appeal. No need to deal with another person, you could get in and out and have any private business conversations you want, without worrying about leaks.

There are also some courier businesses looking into replacing their drivers with automated vehicles.

This is not something we here at Eagle Couriers ever believe could be an option. Not because we’re afraid of innovation, not because we want to hold the industry back but because we value the human touch.
Imagine the scenario. You use a driverless courier firm, your package arrives at the main street of your office building, who carries it upstairs? Nobody. You’d have to walk down the stairs and out on to the main street.

Then, how do you access the van? Say there’s a fingerprint scanner, then how do you get your package? Chances are, by rummaging through the van. There’s security issues throughout and no human touch – something so important to us and our customers.

We value our drivers and in time they may face difficulties in an industry affected by autonomous vehicles.

But here at Eagle we’ll make a commitment to keeping them, even if it’s just to carry your delivery up the stairs and to make sure you get it okay.