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Watermelons are the latest proof point for autonomous trucking. TuSimple s driver-monitored Level 4 high autonomy-equipped trucks covered 900 miles from Nogales, Arizona, to Oklahoma City, delivering the fruit in just over 14 hours 42% faster than a typical run.
The efficiency gains from the self-driving truck software startup s experiment with Los Angeles-based Giumarra Cos. could eventually alter the way produce is picked, packed and shipped to local groceries. Speed to market for watermelons isn t as important because they re a sturdier fruit and they have a longer shelf life, Kristina Lorusso, Giumarra business development director, told FreightWaves. Something like stone fruit or berries where we re shaving off that time, [that would be] a very exciting development.
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This week, we re looking at what insurance for autonomous trucks might look like and how truck manufacturers are booking additional revenue by selling chargers and hand-holding advice with electric trucks.
Insuring The Drive, Not The Driver
Autonomous trucking software developer TuSimple and Liberty Mutual insurance are working together to figure out how to insure a truck without a distracted, drowsy or otherwise human driver behind the wheel.
Truly driverless trucks are several years away, though TuSimple plans a fourth-quarter pilot on Arizona highways.
David Blessing, Liberty Mutual s chief underwriting officer for new mobility, says working with TuSimple, which operates 50 Level 4 highly autonomous trucks in three Southwestern states all with safety drivers will help develop custom insurance underwriting for early adopters and fleets that add autonomous trucks later.
Reach expects full-year operating profit to be slightly ahead of market expectations Although headline revenue growth is currently flattered by a soft prior year comparative, underlying momentum has been encouraging, particularly in digital, the company said
Newspapers group Reach PLC (LON:RCH) said digital and print revenue in the first four months of the year was slightly ahead of management’s expectations.
The owner of the Mirror and Express titles expects operating profit for the full year to be slightly ahead of market expectations.
The group said digital revenue grew by 35.0% in the period compared with a year earlier. Print revenue declined by 10.4% on the back of a 7.9% decline in circulation.
Reach forecasts profit boost for 2021 as digital revenues rise
Daily Mirror owner Reach has confirmed its annual operating profit is on track to exceed market expectations after recording strong digital revenue growth in the first four months of the year.While digital income is headed in the right direction, print revenues continue to atrophy amid a slump in physical newspaper sales.
Reach’s outlook
The Daily Express owner recorded a 35% rise in revenues for its digital business across the four months to April 25 on the back of a jump in registered users to 6.2 million.
A digital surge positions Reach with a favorable springboard to achieve its stated goal of accumulating 10 million registered customers by 2022.
DOL’s independent contractor rule withdrawn
The Department of Labor is officially withdrawing a late-Trump-era rulemaking that would have clarified the definition within the Fair Labor Standards Act. Because the rule never took effect, owner-operators will so no changes as a result of the rule s withdrawal.
DOL published the final rule on Jan. 7, shortly before the end of Trump’s presidency. Just days prior to the rule’s publication, the incoming Biden administration specifically mentioned the independent contractor rule as one of Trump’s “midnight regulations” that would be halted.
The independent contractor rule would have used five economic-reality factors to help businesses determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. Two of those factors – the nature and degree of the worker’s control over the work and the worker’s opportunity for profit or loss – were the two “core” factors for determining a worker’s classific