Driverless Trucks

When will the shift happen and what does it mean for truckers

One of the key talking points of 2016 has been the new technologies aimed at making trucking greener and safer.

The introduction of ‘driverless’ trucks will see some minor changes in the look of the truck with a sleek extended tractor front and an array of LED lights  that will replace traditional headlights. Major changes have been made to the communications technology of the truck which will include a Highway Pilot navigation system enabled by a collection of cameras and radar sensors, whilst continually transmitting its position to other drivers and traffic control centres. The technology allows a convoy of lorries to travel within just a few feet from each other and will even allow you to programme the engine so it can’t speed over 65 miles an hour.

For now the driver maintains the overall control of decision making, importantly including the emergency measures needed to bring the vehicle to a gradual halt if the computer fails to respond to the system commands.

When will driverless trucks arrive in the UK?

The transition of trucks to driverless trucks will not happen overnight, we will not find that suddenly those 3.5 million truckers will no longer roam land.

The Times reported trials would take place on the M6 in Cumbria later in 2016, with vehicles in convoy headed by a driver in the leading lorry. The tests would take place on a quiet stretch of the motorway. The paper said the plans could result in platoons of up to 10 computer-controlled trucks being driven metres apart from each other.

We are wondering if this vision of automated trucking will inevitably take the enjoyment and excitement out of a truck driver’s journey or if the safety aspects will make it a pleasurable experience.

Where will the road to transition lead truck drivers?

The more evident question here is what will happen to all the truck drivers once they are replaced by a machine that can do their job for them?

Economics say that human desires and wants are infinite. So, we invent a machine that supplies some of those wants. Say, the tractor to replace the many men and many mules. What happens to those many men? Well, human desires and wants are infinite. Thus they can go off and do something, anything, which satisfies some other human desire and or want.

Of course the next generation of people aren’t going to train as truckers, they’ll go off and train as something else, but what does all this mean for the drivers of today?

Keep an eye on the Old Pond blog for more news on driverless trucks.

Old Pond Life - February 2016

In this autobiography Mick writes of the dangers of the haulage industry where he has been held hostage by striking Spanish drivers and even outwitted hijackers. And of the good times when he double manned trucks with his wife for nearly 10 years. Reflecting on his varied career with humour and a little sarcasm, he concludes that as good as those days were he certainly wouldn’t go back.

Farm Machinery 6th Edition Brian Bell This revised edition is an outstanding resource for students and farmers, including chapters on tractors, machinery for cultivation, drilling machinery, crop treatment, harvest, maintenance, mechanical handlers, dairy equipment, irrigation and farm power. Order Now

Money In Muck Volume 3  Tractor Torque With farming becoming ever more intensive, the kit used to handle the increasing volumes of feed and waste must grow to suit. In "Money in Muck Vol 3" we see some real heavy weight machines in action as well as some more main stream hi tech systems. Order Now

Lorries of Arabia Part 2 Robert Hackford This book is a companion to the hugely popular Lorries of Arabia: ERF NGC, published in 2015. Including 100 new photos, it will further delight fans of Lorries of Arabia 1, whetting their appetite for more. Out In March 2016

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An Interview with Mick Rennison - Author of Keep on Truckin' 40 Years on the Road

An interview with Mick Rennison

In eager anticipation of Mick’s autobiography Keep On Truckin’ – Out in February 2016, we wanted to know a little bit more about the writer.

Here Mick discusses hobbies, writing and how he began his career in the haulage industry.

Could you tell us abit about your early days in trucking? I began my driving career as a van driver for Curry’s. My father was a truck driver and as a kid I would go with him on school holidays, so I always wanted to have a go at driving the bigger trucks. But it wasn’t until I moved to Wales with a small family that I got the chance. The industry then was pretty much unregulated; there were rules but nobody followed them and health and safety was mostly ignored. If you got hurt it was your own bloody fault. I shudder to think of what I got up to. When carrying timber I’d have to climb up on top of the load, maybe 15 or 16 foot high, and spread a tarpaulin over the timber. Usually on a dock side in all weathers. Of course people fell off and got hurt but that was just the way it was. Falling asleep at the wheel after driving excessive hours was pretty common too. In my early years unemployment was the boss’s best friend and the drivers’ worst enemy. Any dissent or unwillingness to break the rules would mean your P45. I was often on the dole for long periods; the first time, with a partner and 2 children, I was entitled to £11.00 per week. You can see why most people would put up with anything just to stay in work. But I loved it.

What lead you into a transcontinental driving career? My willingness to undertake any job is what eventually lead me into the long distance work. You never knew where you’d be going. When you tipped your first load you would phone in, reverse charge call from a phone box, then you would get your next job and destination. Returning to the yard after 3 or 4 days away (or 3 or 4 weeks when the job later took me over the water) I’d have a sense of satisfaction, job well done. I still do. Moving back to civilization on the South coast, I began working for driving agencies. In my time I must have worked for dozens of them and they are all the same. They promise you the world just to get you on their books, then it is always tomorrow, they’ll call tomorrow with the details. And when you do get a job you get treated badly by the employers and your fellow drivers. Everybody hates agency drivers! But I earned some decent money. In the early 2000s I was taking home twice as much as I am now.

I double manned trucks (2 drivers) with my wife Jo all over Europe and Scandinavia for nearly 10 years before her untimely death from cancer aged just 49 years old.

How would you describe yourself? My kids and granddaughter would and do, call me an old hippy. My haircut now, what little there is left, is a number 5 so maybe they’re talking attitude not appearance. But I have to admit I've got some pretty neat tie dye!

Do you have any thoughts about your writing career? I began my writing with pieces for a couple of truck magazines in the early 90’s. I took the musical Chess (in the back of a truck) to Norway and kept a diary of the 3 week trip. I submitted it to Truck Magazine and they published it over 2 issues as a ‘Long Distance Diary’. As you can imagine it was thrilling to see it in print. Road Transport Media have recently republished the Chess trip in a new volume of Long Distance Diaries. I followed this with accounts of various accidents and incidents I encountered on the road. These were published in Trucking International under ‘My Mistake’. Over the years I have also written articles about my pet hates: rubbish in lay-bys, tailgating and crap bosses. Don’t get me started!

In the mid 90’s I began writing a novel. Ten years later I self-published ‘Diesel Rose’. A hard drinking man eater, Rose stood over 6 foot tall and weighed in at more than 20 stone. She teams up with Dave the hero and they travel around Europe in a legendary Ford Transcontinental truck. It contains sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. It got a great review in Truck & Driver and sold well though 100s not 1000s.

My next attempt at a novel was ‘Charlie’s Place’. A story of a crook who runs a truck stop. Again it took me years to finish. The manuscript will hopefully be published in the near-future.

What does a truck driver like yourself enjoy in their spare time? When I was 8 years old I got the ‘I Spy’ book of birds for Christmas and I was hooked. I don’t travel around the Kingdom seeking them out but let them come to me. Although I do confess to once driving 50 miles off route to see the ospreys at Loch Garten in Scotland. While travelling around Europe I have seen some amazing birds. I always carry binoculars and the truck serves as an excellent hide. Some favourites are bee-eaters in Portugal following a plough, golden eagles and vultures in Spain, nightingales in Italy and hoopoes in France. On my canal mooring I have a bird list of over 40. Everything from sparrow hawks to kingfishers.

My other passion is music. I can’t play a note but I just love live music. As a teenager I went to many free festivals and in recent years have seen greats like Leonard Cohen, BB King and Eric Clapton. We also love musicals often taking the boat up into London on a Saturday morning (2 to 3 hours), seeing a band or show in the evening then returning to our mooring on the Sunday.

Where can we find you when you are not writing? I’m a born traveller. I sailed the world in the Merchant Navy as a teenager. And got paid for it! In more recent times I’ve travelled up to Sweden in a camper van, toured Europe and Ireland in a van with a bed in the back and crossed the USA coast to coast in a RV with my sons and granddaughter. Last year I married Charley and we honeymooned driving an RV 5000 K’s across Canada. Some might say these are ‘busman’s holidays’ and perhaps they are. But it’s a real buzz plotting and planning these trips and again a great sense of satisfaction when the journey ends all safe and well.

Click here to pre-order Keep on Truckin': 40 Years on the Road.

Coming Soon - Keep On Truckin'

Out in February 2016 is Mick Rennison's fascinating account of his career in the haulage industry.

After miraculously passing his test in an Atkinson Borderer way back in 1974, Mick drove in the days when crooks and con men seemed to run the haulage industry. And Mick worked for most of them! Earning crap wages from arrogant bosses with the constant threat of a P45 hanging over his head, he learned his trade through trial and error - many trials and lots of errors.

His career took him all over Europe and Scandinavia taking musical shows to Norway, JCBs to Greece and supermarket deliveries down to Gibraltar. Driving for a variety of firms he double manned trucks with his wife Jo for nearly 10 years. Along the way he has been blown over in high winds, outwitted hijackers and held hostage by striking Spanish drivers.

Now living on a narrow boat on the Grand Union Canal, Mick is approaching retirement and reflects on his varied career. With humour and not a little sarcasm, he concludes that as good as those days were he certainly wouldn't want to go back.

If you like the sound of this book then why not try Fifty Shades of Tarmac: Adventures with a Mack R600 in 1970s Europe by Andy MacLean.