Is tech good news for truckers?

Summary

Podcast Summary: Business Daily – "Is Tech Good News for Truckers?"

Host: Sam Grouet, BBC World Service
Date: December 16, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode explores how technology is transforming the trucking industry globally, focusing on whether these changes are good news for truckers. Host Sam Grouet takes listeners from truck stops in rainy Vancouver, through the ports of Canada, to Nairobi and Nanjing, speaking with truckers, tech entrepreneurs, and industry experts. Key topics include digital freight matching, automation, the truck driver shortage, environmental impacts, and the looming question of self-driving trucks.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Changing Face of Trucking in Canada

• Fragmentation and Demographics: The trucking industry is fragmented, with many owner-operators. A large portion of the workforce is aging, and there's a significant driver shortage.
• Impact of Technology:
  • Drivers like "Jared" now use digital devices (laptops, tablets, multiple phones) to find work and manage logistics from anywhere.
  • Platforms allow truckers to see available loads, post their availability, and get paid faster (formerly 30-120 days, now almost instant).
  • Technology has increased flexibility, revenue, and efficiency for truckers.

Notable Quote:
"On the new truck, it’s all digital, so there’s a lot more screens... I have a laptop and a tablet and two cell phones… If I want to get a load to go home, I just turn on my laptop... and post my equipment."
— Trucker Jared [03:18]

Timestamp Highlights:

• Trucking tech transformation in Canada [03:07–05:12]

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2. Tech as a Solution to Industry Problems

• Workforce Shortage: Globally, there are an estimated 3 million unfilled truck driver positions (2023, International Road Transport Union).
• Digital Freight Matching:
  • Eric Beckwith (Freightera) describes platforms ("Uberization") that automate and digitize the matching of freight, reducing costs and emissions.
  • Transparency benefits shippers (who want lower prices) and trucking companies (who get paid reliably).

Notable Quote:
"We act as an intermediary, making certain the trucking companies get paid… allowing the people searching for those rates to search 20 billion lanes in five or 10 seconds and find… the least cost, lowest emission option."
— Eric Beckwith [08:11]

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3. Environmental Impacts: Is "Uberization" Greener?

• Significant CO₂ Emissions: Road freight accounts for more than half of transport-related CO₂ emissions (2022 McKinsey report).
• Tech Reducing Emissions:
  • Automation and route optimization lower fuel use and emissions.
  • Digital platforms can reduce "empty miles," where trucks run with no cargo, both in Canada and Africa.

Notable Quote:
"So you solve the climate problem, you solve the air problem, you reduce the cost of shipping… when you do it correctly with AI and automation… it's all one problem we're solving simultaneously."
— Eric Beckwith [07:38]

Timestamp Highlights:

• Emissions, automation, and freight tech vision [07:13–08:48], [14:26]

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4. Africa: Digital Transformation at Scale

• Logistics Reality: In Africa, over 75% of inland freight moves by truck—often the only viable option. The industry is highly fragmented; 85% of trucks are owned by small companies or individuals.
• Lori’s Impact (Jean Claude Homawu):
  • By digitizing trucking, Lori has broadened access, reduced the cost of goods, and improved efficiency.
  • Their platform managed to avoid 9,000 metric tons of CO₂ by eliminating empty return miles, which also reduces operating costs and prices for goods.

Notable Quote:
"The inefficiency of trucking... is the reason why lots of things are expensive in Africa... Lori was inspired by the idea that digitizing could cut costs and emissions."
— Jean Claude Homawu [12:21], [14:26]

Timestamp Highlights:

• The African trucking landscape and digitization [10:31–15:16]

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5. China: Digitization’s Double-Edged Sword

• Scale and Change:
  • China has 16 million truck drivers, 32 million trucks; heavy reliance on trucks compared to water transport.
  • Digital platforms led to drastic industry changes, bringing transparency and efficiency.
• Drivers’ Challenges:
  • While digitization enables drivers to get more load opportunities, it also increases competition, lowering rates and fostering negative sentiment among drivers.
  • Younger people are leaving the profession due to difficult conditions and low pay, especially for long-haul routes.

Notable Quote:
"Uberization basically digitized the industry… The price will eventually go down… decline in price still leads to pretty much a little bit like I would say negative sentiment of drivers."
— Dr. Zhao Chen [16:51]

Timestamp Highlights:

• China’s freight digitalization and the worker dilemma [15:24–17:32]

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6. The Future: Automation and Driverless Trucks

• Testing and Timelines:
  • North America and China are trialing driverless lorries—currently viable only in closed environments (e.g., ports, mines).
  • Broad deployment is seen as "inevitable" but will take time.
• Industry Outlook:
  • Some truckers (like Jared) believe self-driving trucks won’t threaten jobs anytime soon.
  • Tech entrepreneurs envision a fully "packetized" shipment system using automation, tracking, and renewables decades into the future.

Notable Quotes:

• "Transportation has been around for hundreds of years. I mean, it’s not going to end with people worrying about self-driving trucks. That’s going to take a while."
  — Trucker Jared [19:00]

• "Fast forward two to four decades... freight is packetized, goes in standard-sized recyclable containers that have an IP address... automation AI-powered... lowest capacity competitive bidding... The future can be completely renewable and that’s what we’re all working to build."
  — Eric Beckwith [19:27]

Timestamp Highlights:

• Automation and the future of trucking [18:02–20:03]

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On Digitization’s Benefits:
  "You can turn on your laptop and punch in a zip code... to see the loads that are available." — Trucker Jared [03:47]
• On Trucking’s Role in Goods Pricing:
  "When things are moved on trucks... the inefficiency... means the price of moving on truck in Africa [is] the highest in the world." — Jean Claude Homawu [12:21]
• On Automation’s Promise:
  "Complete transparency and tracking, allows those things to be traded while they can travel... and the future can be completely renewable." — Eric Beckwith [19:27]

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Segment Timestamps

• Canadian Truckers & Digitization: [01:10–05:12]
• The Industry’s Labor Crisis: [05:17–07:13]
• Tech for CO2 & Efficiency (Canada): [07:13–08:48]
• African Trucking & Lori’s Model: [10:31–15:16]
• China’s Scale & Digital Transition: [15:24–17:32]
• Driver Shortages & Demographics: [17:32–18:02]
• Automation and the Future: [18:02–20:03]

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Conclusion: Is Tech Good News for Truckers?

Technology and digitization have dramatically reshaped the trucking industry across continents—improving efficiency, transparency, and speed, and offering environmental benefits. For truckers, the reality is mixed: easier access to jobs and quicker payment, but also downward pressure on rates, job insecurity, and tough working conditions. The looming wave of automation promises even deeper changes, with experts divided on how soon self-driving trucks will become mainstream or what it will mean for the millions who make their living on the road.

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For further episodes, find Business Daily wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

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[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Hello and welcome to Business Daily with me Sam Grouet. Today we're talking about a global trillion dollar industry that's the backbone of economies around the world.

[Jean Claude Homawu]

Trucking across Africa employs, I'd say 7 to 10 million people and asking whether.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Technology can overcome some of the issues facing the industry from a global worker shortage.

[Dr. Zhao Chen]

The work is tough, margin can be.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Low, younger generation don't want the job to CO2 emissions.

[Tech Entrepreneur Eric Beckwith]

Asthma is heavily associated with bad airframe freight, ozone generation particulates and how artificial.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Intelligence could impact it all.

[Trucker Jared]

It's not going to end with people worrying about self driving trucks. That's going to take a while.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Is technology good news for truckers? That's coming up on Business Daily. It's a rainy day here in Vancouver as I shelter underneath the awnings of a truck stop, surrounded as you can probably hear by the grumbling of several large lorries, each of them coming here to fuel up before making their way onwards across Canada and North America. Some of the lorries here have got massive trailers behind them. Many of the people here will work for larger companies, but some and a good proportion of those will be owner operated, that is driving their own trucks, owning their own business. And something that's enabling that to happen is technology which has given drivers greater access to freight loads and to companies looking to have stuff moved across the country. There were more than 324,000 truckers on Canada's roads in 2021, according to the latest available data. When Canadian trucker Jared first started out in the industry more than two decades ago, he didn't anticipate he'd be on tour with a country music star.

[Trucker Jared]

I started in 1985. It just happened. Right place, the right time, about 20, 23 years ago.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Just describe to us then, what does your dashboard look like in front of you in the truck?

[Trucker Jared]

On the new truck, it's all digital, so there's a lot more screens that you gotta go through. I have a laptop and a tablet and two cell phones and I can do on either, depending on where I am. You know, during a break, if I want to get a load to go home, you know, I just turn on my laptop and I'll pre download my availability to the other carriers or brokers.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Yeah, and just tell us about how that's changed the way you work then.

[Trucker Jared]

It's a lot easier before, I mean, you'd have to be on the phone and keep a record of who you dealt with and you had no way of knowing who had what. And now being digitalized, I mean, you can turn on your laptop and punch in a zip code, go your radius of 10 to 300 miles to see the loads that are available.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Yeah. So say you're on break from touring around carrying guitars and drum kits and you wanted to pick up an extra bit of work that's now possible for you.

[Trucker Jared]

Yes. So if I have to get one of the trucks back to British Columbia, I'll Pre download on the 25th of June. You know, where I'm going to be available and where I'd like to go. So you can go online to different platforms and post your equipment.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Obviously, this is transformed your business. Tell me, how do you think it's transformed the trucking industry more generally?

[Trucker Jared]

Faster turnarounds. You know, back in the day, you had to sit by a pay phone if you're on the road and call your dispatch or start calling people you've worked with. You know, today it's so much easier from the comfort of a hotel room or your home or your truck. It's increased your. Your revenue before. You'd have to wait 30, 60, 90, 120 days to get paid. Now, you know, click and scan or take a picture of your documents and send it off and it's instant.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Jared, it's been so interesting talking to you about this and best of luck with the rest of the tour.

[Trucker Jared]

Thanks, Sam.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

To become a truck driver, you need a commercial driving license, a truck, and to meet some specific requirements depending on the country you're driving in, making it a favored choice for workers without qualifications or those looking to start their own business. It's a fragmented industry with an increasingly aging workforce in several countries, which has led to problems for the industry and all of those who rely on it.

[Podcast Announcer]

Now transport companies are appealing for more women to become lorry drivers amid a.

[Tech Entrepreneur Eric Beckwith]

National shortage Shortage Right now, a truck driver shortage is just one part of the problem in the current supply chain crisis across the country.

[Trucker Jared]

The majority of goods we ship across.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

This continent moves on trucks, but now, at least here in Canada, there seems to be a tough time finding people to drive them. A shortage of truckers as reported in the U.S. uK and on Canada's CTV, was exacerbated by the COVID 19 pandemic. There's an estimated 3 million truck driver positions unfilled in 36 countries around the world, according to a 2023 report. International road Transport Union from the truck stop, I'm heading to the hub of Vancouver's international trade. So we're overlooking quite a sight. The port with its towering orange cranes, shipping containers stacked high behind that we can see the mountains poking into view. Very scenic setting for freight to travel into Canada's west coast where it will be met with lorries to take it across the rest of the country and down into the United States. I'm here with Eric Beckwith, who runs online freight marketplace Freightera. Eric's firm is one of many so called uberized platforms digitally matching truckers with companies who need freight, a term coined due to its similarity with the ride hailing app. He says there's another much bigger issue facing the industry CO2 emissions.

[Tech Entrepreneur Eric Beckwith]

My wife and I founded this company in 2014 both to automate freight or we have a background in computer science and programming, but also to actually have a huge impact on reducing emissions from freight, particularly emissions that cause harm to people, but also greenhouse gas emissions.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Road freight accounts for more than half of CO2 emissions within trade related transport, according to a 2022 McKinsey report.

[Tech Entrepreneur Eric Beckwith]

Asthma is heavily associated with bad air from freight, ozone generation, particulates, and there's a huge opportunity also as you reduce fuel consumption and you shift to renewables, you simultaneously solve all these different problems at once. You solve climate problem, you solve the air problem, you reduce the cost of shipping and when you do it correctly with AI and automation, you automate and digitize the whole process. So it's all one problem that we're solving simultaneously.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

As a distant lorry parks up across the harbour, Eric explains how digital products like his work.

[Tech Entrepreneur Eric Beckwith]

So when we started in 2014, there wasn't a single application programming interface among all the transportation companies in Canada. From the perspective of the owners of the warehouses and the distribution centres, they have to pay as little as possible for freight because if the freight cost depending on that cost, it can completely destroy them. So we actually act as an intermediary, making certain the trucking companies get paid and having all their rates in a system and allowing the people searching for those rates to search 20 billion lanes in five or 10 seconds and find for that particular needle in a haystack going from that particular place who has the least cost, lowest emission option that will guarantee that rate.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

You're listening to Business Daily from the BBC World Service.

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[Sam Grouet (Host)]

I'm Sam Grouet. Today is technology good news for truckers. From the port of Vancouver, we're heading to the Kenyan capital Nairobi, where Uberization has been shaping Africa's giant trucking industry.

[Jean Claude Homawu]

Over 75% of inland freight is moved by road. And in many cases it's the only mode of transportation available.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Jean Claude Homawu is the co founder of Lorri, the leading e logistics trucking company in Africa.

[Jean Claude Homawu]

We're a tech enabled logistics company operating in east and West Africa. Since 2016 we've worked to reduce the cost of goods by digitizing and optimizing long haul trucking, which is really the economic backbone of many African countries. Whereas in Europe and in the US you might have a lot of railway, waterway and even the belly of commercial airlines. Many times in Africa, trucking is really the only available inland freight mechanism. So whether it's delivering maize or cement or medical supplies, trucking really enables trade, food security and access to essential goods. So across Africa there's probably about 3 million trucks operating. In East Africa, about 400,000 and in Kenya, about 80 to 100,000 active long haul trucks. And the vast majority of those, about 85% of the trucks are owned by small and medium enterprises or individuals. So it's a very fragmented market that employs and across Africa employs, I'd say 7 to 10 million people.

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[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Wow, that's a lot of truckers on Afropiz road.

[Jean Claude Homawu]

Yes, it is.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

And so tell us about your business Lori, and how did that start? And you obviously saw a gap in the market there.

[Jean Claude Homawu]

So my co founder and I started the company back in 2016 and it was really based on my co founder's thesis around the impact that transportation logistics has on the, on the price of goods and in Africa, specifically because of the low utilization of trucks. What you find is that trucking contributes much to the cost of goods. So it's the reason why lots of things are really expensive in Africa. Whether you're talking about raw materials or food products. When things are moved on trucks, and as we established earlier, many things or most, most things are moved on trucks in Africa. The, the inefficiency of that trucking, the fact that that truck is only really utilized 15% of the time or is only earning in one direction and then driving back empty and burning fuel, all of those things contribute to the price of moving on truck in Africa being the highest in the world. And that cost ends up in the goods that are being moved. Right. So it's really passed on to. So this really was the inspiration for Lori.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Lori has built up a network of 20,000 trucks since it began operating in 2016.

[Jean Claude Homawu]

And we work with several hundred enterprises who need trucks and often don't want to burden themselves with either owning them or running that process themselves. So much like an Uber, they reach out to Lori to source the trucking capacity that they need and to outsource all of the process of finding the truck, matching the truck, ensuring that it loads the cargo, ensuring that the cargo is dropped off on time and in full, and then paying the transporters.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Jean Claude claims that digitization in trucking is also having a big impact on CO2 emissions.

[Jean Claude Homawu]

There are certain origin and destination points, like Mombasa to Kampala in Uganda for instance, where over the years we have loaded so many trucks that we have actually seen the price of a full truckload drop. But ultimately also has an impact on climate. So far in our eight years of operation, Lorri has helped avoid 9,000 metric tons of CO2 by effectively negating these empty miles and instead finding cargo that would have required a trucking trip anyway and making sure that it is added to the round trip that a transporter is already going to be making.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Lorry boss Jean Claude Homowu speaking to me from Nairobi. From Kenya, we're off to the Nanjing Province in East China.

[Dr. Zhao Chen]

China now has 16 million truck drivers and the total trucks in operation is 32 million trucks.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Dr. Zhao Chen is a leading expert in China's freight. He was chief scientist at Full Truck alliance, the world's largest digital freight matching company.

[Dr. Zhao Chen]

Among these trucks, 8.4 million are heavy duty trucks in operation.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

In other words, lots of cargo being moved every day.

[Dr. Zhao Chen]

Yeah. So the total road freight is like four times bigger than waterway transportation in China.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

The Chinese economy also heavily relies on truck drivers. And but China's market, like many places around the world, is filled with lots of smaller firms.

[Dr. Zhao Chen]

I would say that the most important change in this industry is after the mobile phone, like mobile smartphone coming into play. So they enable drivers to be active in the online deal making process, which I would say changed the industry greatly. So previously only the chippers and also the intermediaries are on the market, but now you see a lot of drivers come into play.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

So is this good news for drivers? Well, not necessarily, says Dr. Chen.

[Dr. Zhao Chen]

Uberization basically digitized the industry. Right. So now you can see demands transparently and you can also see the supply to some extent transparently. As a result, if you do have more trucks than cargoes or in a so called oversupply situation. Right. The price will eventually go down, down to certain level. You still have to cover the driver's cost. Right. But I would say this kind of a decline in price still leads to pretty much a little bit like I would say negative sentiment of drivers.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

It's something you hear often in conversations about trucking. Long hours on the road, weeks away from family and fluctuating rates for transporting cargo.

[Dr. Zhao Chen]

Younger generation aren't signing up for this work anymore, especially in rich areas. The job is tough, pay is relatively low and we are seeing aging driver pool in rich regions. We do have some real shortages, mainly on the hardest roads, for example. Super long haul.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

In the short term Dr. Chen says digitization is meeting the challenge. But longer term he sees another solution because you've probably seen driverless cars but.

[Tech Entrepreneur Eric Beckwith]

Now you can expect to see driverless.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Semis on the highway. In April, a commercial driverless truck took to an American highway for the first time ever operated by AI self driving company Aurora. Meanwhile in China, fleets of driverless lorries are currently operating on test routes around the country.

[Dr. Zhao Chen]

It's currently only viable in some closed scenarios like ports or mines. Right. So it's already in reality now in China, but over the time I would say it's an inevitable disruption. Eventually it will fundamentally reshape drivers role across the logistics industry.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

For trucker Jared, speaking to me from behind the wheel of his lorry in Canada, it's just too far away to worry him.

[Trucker Jared]

Transportation has been around for hundreds of years. I mean it's not going to end with people worrying about self driving trucks. That's going to take a while.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

But back in western Canada, overlooking the towering Orange county cranes and stack shipping containers of the port of Vancouver, for digital cargo boss Eric Beckwith, digitization and automation are just the beginning when it comes to the future of global freight.

[Tech Entrepreneur Eric Beckwith]

Let's say we fast forward two to four decades into the future. Freight is now packetized. It goes in standard sized recyclable containers that have an IP address and you tell those 20 packets go to Singapore to this location and they go into the network and they self assemble and use different networks and self assemble on the other side. That automation AI powered in the future allows those to run through whatever vehicles and networks have the lowest capacity competitive bidding on the process. It allows complete transparency and tracking, allows those things to be traded while they can travel. And that's the future can be completely renewable and that's what we're all working to build as an industry.

[Sam Grouet (Host)]

Thank you to Eric and to all of my guests. Guests, you've been listening to Business Daily on the BBC World Service with me, Sam Gruay. This episode was produced by Megan Lawton. You can find more episodes wherever you get your BBC podcasts. I love ravioli since when do you speak Italian?

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