All right. Let’s bring up Glynn Spangenberg, chief commercial officer over at Locomation. The last time we saw him, we were both in Arkansas. Glynn, thanks for coming back on the show.
Glynn Spangenberg
Absolutely. It’s great to see you guys again.
Speaker 0
Yeah, it was good seeing you on the floor out there. I think we have a couple of pictures from it as well. Show these up real nice. Ooh. Yeah. Good time out there. I love the shirt you had on too. You had to make sure to get the back in there. So you could point to the name and all that. How did you enjoy the event over in Rogers, Arkansas?
Glynn Spangenberg
It was awesome. I went there on a scouting mission with Tom Kroswek, our head of strategy and business development, to see what was going on at the future of supply chain from the Freightways perspective. And we found it just a super audience, receptive to new technologies and just really a great time to openly get out and see folks altogether. And it was good to see how really much taller you guys look in person than you do here on the radio. And to the dude, thank you for, you know, dropping it down to my level, just a tad, so that it looked like we were symmetrically laid out there, somehow.
Speaker 0
It looks like the spread between diesel and contract prices. You were just talking about, you know, when we were out there, it was interesting. You know, the space is heating up. The autonomous space is heating up, but it wasn’t just at ours. ACT Expo is happening at the same time. I saw a lot of pictures from there. Lot of companies entering this space. So how is Locomation different from all these other companies in the AV trucking sector though?
Glynn Spangenberg
Oh, I’ll tell you. Our company was founded by five guys from Carnegie Mellon’s National Robotics Engineering Center. And from the start, they were dissonant from the overall pack because they looked at these other AV companies being founded in that era. And they fundamentally disagreed with those business models, which were predicated on bringing level four and level five autonomy, solo driverless autonomy to the market as the initial step. Because our founders knew that solo driverless trucks just wouldn’t be able to handle all the driving and safety situations for many years, if not decades.
And so the fact is that even today, there’s still so much more work yet to do, to get to a fully commercially viable driver-out solo, autonomous truck. And, you know, irrespective of all the big promises and endless postponed timelines that are so common with the other companies in the sector, we’re coming out with the human guided approach. That’s focused on a human in the loop rather than replacing the human, given the technology that augments their capabilities. And this solution we believe is the right, practical, safe step for bringing a realistic deployment to market for autonomous trucks.
Speaker 2
That makes perfect sense, Glynn. Now you guys at Locomation, obviously you talk about providing a turnkey autonomous service for the trucking industry, right? Can you define that for us? What does that exactly mean?
Glynn Spangenberg
Yeah, so we recognized that trucking was really far larger than a market filled with like taxis and all. Long haul trucking would be the best initial fit for autonomy. So we designed the solution to address the industry’s biggest pain points – inefficiency, lack of capacity, high costs, low margins, poor quality of life, high carbon emissions, and all of that. But to make that work, you really need a turnkey solution, meaning that it needs to be built end to end for a customer to easily implement it into their current business processes from the beginning. So we set up a two-part model designed to work in today’s world that could leverage the benefits of autonomous convoy, first Locomation overhauls the customer’s traditional work operation to institute a relay model, splitting the long haul from the local haul.
And then we provide a proprietary freight scheduling service to enable customers to implement optimized runs on a daily basis with autonomy. And when it’s implemented this Digital Transportation System means that long haul trucks on the relay network can run up to 22 hours per day. And then we introduce our Autonomous Relay Convoy or ARC technology that goes on the truck that enables the trucks to now run in pairs led by a single driver. So the trucks are electronically tethered and equipped with Locomation’s autonomous driving system and the lead driver controls the convoy while a second driver in the second truck follows autonomously and rests off the clock. So at the destination hub, they pick up new loads with the rested driver now leading the convoy as they head back home while the follower driver now sleeps.
Speaker 0
So Glynn, you guys make a bold claim here. You say, you’ll be the first to deploy in commercial operations across the country, going beyond just these testing loops a lot of companies are doing. So what makes you so confident you’ll be the first?
Glynn Spangenberg
Yeah, Locomation will be first because our solution is not only technologically practical in the near term, but because it’s safe under any condition, our human in the loop approach means that Locomation-equipped trucks can navigate complex and challenging scenarios, such as, you know, adverse weather and construction zones and crash scenes and inspections and interaction with law enforcement and emergency vehicle encounters. And so unlike our competitors, Locomation requires no new federal regulation because our convoys are controlled by trained humans in the loop. And frankly, we’re getting a great response from the market because the solution is actually really good for drivers. It matters to our customers and to our industry.
Drivers’ time will be used for maximum efficiency, which means better compensation, fewer wasted detention-time hours, and frequent returns back to their home base. And, you know, the ability to routinely clock off and spend time with family and community will be a major boost to the drivers’ quality of life.
Speaker 2
Yeah. So Glynn, let’s put you to the test again. How do you back up the claims about the results your business model is going to provide people?
Glynn Spangenberg
That’s a great question because these are truly bold claims and typically you need to be able to validate it to, you know, to advertise these things. And so that’s what we undertook to do. As for the environmental impact, these eye-popping numbers, again, 21% lower fuel consumption and 22% reduced greenhouse gas emissions, were validated by an independent third party company. That’s an analysis by Boundless Impact Research Analytics.
This firm, Boundless, they’re a leading firm for credible assessments of corporate environmental claims. They utilize a Life Cycle Self-Assessment method that literally assessed the Scope One, Two and Three greenhouse gas emissions of Locomation’s ARC technology. Life Cycle Assessments alone are recognized as far more rigorous than really any other reporting method.
So Boundless researched and modeled the material and the energy and the performance characteristics for Locomation’s ARC system, based on detailed information provided by Locomation that described the material components, the energy consumption impacts, the labor, and the cost implications. And at the core of the methodology is this Life Cycle Assessment model for the transportation of goods by a long-haul Class 8 truck carrying one ton of goods for one kilometer on a highway and the scores and the metrics derived they’re trustworthy, they’re reliable because they’re unbiased, and they’re validated by external industry and scientific experts.
While some others claim, you know, easier access and things to do, if you take trucks that are running less than seven hours per day, and you want to model this as they do on average seven hours per day, and utilization to more than 20 hours per day with matched loads going back and forth without wait time, you’ve clearly boosted freight volume substantially. And then you have two trucks rather than one truck running with a single driver on duty, it’s clear that you’re going to have double the capacity and boosted efficiency. And altogether that’s going to mean higher profits.
Speaker 0
Well, Glynn, in our opening segment, we poorly talked about aligning ESG goals with actual supply chain goals. And that’s kind of exactly what you’re talking about right here. Go check out Locomation. You have a great weekend and thanks for coming back on the show.
Glynn Spangenberg
Thank you Dooner. Thank you to the Dude. Great meeting you guys in person the other day and look forward to the next time.
Speaker 0
Of course, of course. We’ll see out there. Take care.