03/14/2018

Automating Work: Changing How the Job Gets Done

Associations should keep a close eye on automation.

Dystopian movies have conditioned us to think that automation sounds the death knell for industry, if not humanity. The robots will come for our jobs—and then they’ll come for us, the story goes. Experiments with self-driving trucks, like the one rideshare service Uber is currently conducting, has led some to suggest that the age of the long-haul trucker will soon end.

In truth, the U.S. trucking industry still faces a large, persistent, and daunting shortage of drivers—48,000, according to the American Trucking Associations (ATA). And when Ellen Voie, CAE, president and CEO of Women in Trucking (WIT), thinks about automation, she sees not impending mass unemployment but an opportunity to close that gap.

“I think we’re a long way from a truck that doesn’t have a driver in it,” she says. But newer technologies, such as cameras, sensors, and steering-assistance tools that can reduce driver error, can go a long way toward promoting the industry as a safe one for women—and WIT members say safety is their chief concern, even ahead of compensation.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.