Improving Last Mile Logistics With Autonomous Fleet Management

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Labor shortages have transportation and logistics (T&L) organizations rethinking last-mile delivery—which accounts for more than half of total shipping costs.
More T&L companies are leveraging advanced networks for fleet management and adopting semi-autonomous, autonomous, and teleoperation technologies to increase efficiency and meet customer demands.
Autonomous technologies are being deployed in a wide variety of last-mile settings, including autonomous vehicle deliveries, remote-controlled taxis, and drone services, reducing safety hazards and emissions.

Labor constraints, high employee turnover, fluctuating freight demand,¹ and a predicted shortage² of some 82,000 truck drivers this year are all pushing transportation and logistics organizations³ to rethink the last mile of the supply chain.

The final step of the delivery process—where shipments are moved from a distribution hub to their final destination—is both time and resource intensive. In fact, this last mile accounts for up to 53% of overall shipping costs.⁴The price of fuel, difficulties reaching remote locations, manpower, traffic congestion, and delivery failures can all add up quickly in the last mile.

The last mile accounts for up to

53%

of overall shipping costs.⁴

Leveraging the power of automation and communications.

While self-driving car development is still facing headwinds in the consumer market, forward-thinking T&L operations are already leveraging semi-autonomous technology and teleoperations in their fleets, demonstrating that full autonomy isn’t required to start reaping significant benefits.

Rather than all-at-once implementations that were predicted, autonomous vehicle technology is being introduced gradually, beginning with semi-autonomous technologies that avoid collisions and can improve efficiencies by adjusting routes in real time. Next are teleoperation systems that enable remote drivers to control vehicles in real time over wireless networks using live video feeds. Lastly, fully autonomous, self-driving vehicles are being introduced in controlled last-mile settings where they can be restricted to pre-programmed routes, such as delivering products from a distribution hub to a nearby retail outlet or to customers in a specific neighborhood.

All three approaches are already in use in the commercial environment and continue to expand steadily because, depending on the application, they offer several advantages:

Only transport cargo payloads, rather than human passengers, which reduces potential safety hazards.
Operate at slow speeds, generally below 25 miles per hour, further reducing risk.
Can adjust to fluctuating shipping demands without conducting layoffs or requiring additional driver recruitment.
Can reduce emissions at warehouse shipping yards and help companies meet sustainability goals.
The use of teleoperations for remote piloting can be deployed as a backup in case autonomous systems fail.

A person removes packages from a CLEVON 1 all-electric robot courier vehicle.

Clevon’s autonomous delivery vehicles, for example, already drive on public roads and are helping to make the last mile of the supply chain more energy-efficient, cost-effective, and scalable. The company performed its first U.S. autonomous delivery in 2022 using the CLEVON 1, a multi-platform all-electric robot courier. The courier delivered gourmet meals from an in-flight catering service to recipients at the Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Dallas.

Autonomous delivery vehicles already drive on public roads and are helping to make the last mile of the supply chain more energy-efficient, cost-effective, and scalable.

Since then, supported by our advanced network communications, CLEVON 1 has demonstrated its capabilities by doing laps at a Formula E track and has begun its first U.S. commercial autonomous delivery service in Northlake, Texas, delivering packages from PostNet.⁵ By 2025, Clevon hopes to have 1,000 self-driving delivery vehicles on the road.⁶

Meanwhile, autonomous delivery systems covering the last mile have been tested in multiple settings. Nuro’s R2 autonomous delivery vehicles, which feature 360-degree cameras, lidar, short and long-range radar, and ultrasonic sensors, have been used to deliver Domino’s pizzas, prescriptions to CVS customers,⁷ and FedEx packages.⁸ Currently, Serve Robotics zero-emission bots are scooting around Los Angeles making Uber Eats food deliveries.⁹

Meanwhile, teleoperations are being put through their paces in environments ranging from urban centers to remote industrial locations. Halo.car is already running a commercial taxi service in Las Vegas operated entirely by remote drivers, while Hexagon recently debuted its teleoperations system running in extreme conditions to control huge mining trucks in Brazil.¹⁰

Up, up, and away.

The future of autonomy isn’t tethered to the road, either. More companies are experimenting with flying drones to bridge last-mile gaps. For example, Walmart is partnering with Wing to test drones that can actually deliver small packages within a 4-mile radius. The retailing giant could potentially deliver up to one million packages a year this way.

Electric drones are also more environmentally friendly. Their overall carbon footprint is lower than typical electric cars and vans when it comes to completing individual, last-mile deliveries.

A drone in flight, carrying a package, and an optimized delivery status ETA callout.

The future of drones may be bigger, as well. Stellantis recently invested $55 million in electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company Archer.¹¹ The aviation startup is already in discussions with Southwest Airlines to operate an air taxi service¹² to Southwest’s hubs in California. While the service initially will have human pilots, most analysts expect future eVTOLs to be autonomous.

Doing more with less.

More T&L companies are turning to semi-autonomous, autonomous, and teleoperation technologies to get more done with fewer people. But it’s not just about squeezing out additional efficiencies—it’s about meeting customer needs in order to keep them coming back.

Working with T-Mobile for Business, organizations can tap into our customer experience and wealth of driverless technology partnerships, autonomous fleet management, and cargo-as-a-service opportunities. We provide the low-latency connectivity¹³ that is critical to support the latest technologies that organizations need to keep that last mile of the supply chain optimized, productive, and cost-effective.