Will Logistics Companies Ever Be Replaced By Computers?

[BFritz21]

If so, how soon?

My friend bought a logistics company with my brother (my brother only owned a small portion and I'm not even sure if he still does), and my friend has expanded it more and just makes an absolute fortune. He's so rich that he bought a house a few houses over from Peko's old place.

I know that a lot goes into it, but will they ever develop software where companies can put what they need or where they need to go and a trucker can just put into a computer that he's going somewhere or look on a website and see what he can do?

I guess it's more complicated than I originally thought and there's a human aspect to it that's important in deciding what's the quickest and most efficient way to move things, as well as the best place to store things and other aspects like that, but do you think it could ever be taken over by computers?

I guess something else I never considered is that truckers don't have the time to decide what the best jobs to take are, but computers might be able to evaluate that too.

[treee]

Everything is going to be replaced by computers eventually. It'll take a long time for trucking and expediting though because of a lot of factors, including insurance, liability, and personnel management among other things.

[BFritz21]

(08-15-2023, 12:17 AM)treee Wrote: Everything is going to be replaced by computers eventually. It'll take a long time for trucking and expediting though because of a lot of factors, including insurance, liability, and personnel management among other things.

I wonder how far we are from that.

I was thinking about that in college when I was taking accounting and wondered how long before people will be able to just put in how much they make with expenses and a list of write-offs and whatever.

I know there's software like that now but you still need to buy it and know where to put everything.

What jobs will be left? Lawyers? Doctors? Teachers (maybe)?

Like I said, typing that, I did realize that there's a lot more factors but an easy way to make a lot of money if you know what you'r doing.

[treee]

(08-15-2023, 12:26 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: I wonder how far we are from that.

I was thinking about that in college when I was taking accounting and wondered how long before people will be able to just put in how much they make with expenses and a list of write-offs and whatever.

I know there's software like that now but you still need to buy it and know where to put everything.

What jobs will be left? Lawyers? Doctors? Teachers (maybe)?

Like I said, typing that, I did realize that there's a lot more factors but an easy way to make a lot of money if you know what you'r doing.

For sure. I worked for a small expediting company for a while and the owners certainly weren't hurting for money. It can be volatile though because you're not dealing with dedicated lanes as often. Which means more ebbs and flows. 

[BFritz21]

(08-15-2023, 01:11 AM)treee Wrote: For sure. I worked for a small expediting company for a while and the owners certainly weren't hurting for money. It can be volatile though because you're not dealing with dedicated lanes as often. Which means more ebbs and flows. 

I get that but I think that's one thing that they have going for them: they've grown big enough to make a hell of a lot of money and they have enough customers that they always have business but still small enough to offer quality work and it makes companies/people know that they won't just get lost in the shuffle.

[MileHighGrowler]

(08-15-2023, 12:26 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: I wonder how far we are from that.

I was thinking about that in college when I was taking accounting and wondered how long before people will be able to just put in how much they make with expenses and a list of write-offs and whatever.

I know there's software like that now but you still need to buy it and know where to put everything.

What jobs will be left? Lawyers? Doctors? Teachers (maybe)?

Like I said, typing that, I did realize that there's a lot more factors but an easy way to make a lot of money if you know what you'r doing.

I've worked in FinTech for many years.  The reason finance isn't fully automated is because it's not done the same by every company.  There are standards that must be met to be compliant, pass audits, etc.  But each company's exec team, board, PE firm all want different analytics.  The breakdown is much more micro than money in and money out.  There are also the processes surrounding those transactions that vary because there's no standard across the board on how expense reports are captured, for example.  Just too many variables.  Unless something can be standardized, it's really hard to fully automate. 

I'm guessing it's the same with logistics (a field I admittedly know little about).  Too many variables make it hard to manage entirely with computers.  Especially the personnel management aspect, as people can be unpredictable. 

[BFritz21]

(08-15-2023, 11:16 AM)MileHighGrowler Wrote: I've worked in FinTech for many years.  The reason finance isn't fully automated is because it's not done the same by every company.  There are standards that must be met to be compliant, pass audits, etc.  But each company's exec team, board, PE firm all want different analytics.  The breakdown is much more micro than money in and money out.  There are also the processes surrounding those transactions that vary because there's no standard across the board on how expense reports are captured, for example.  Just too many variables.  Unless something can be standardized, it's really hard to fully automate. 

I'm guessing it's the same with logistics (a field I admittedly know little about).  Too many variables make it hard to manage entirely with computers.  Especially the personnel management aspect, as people can be unpredictable. 

Yeah, I guess that makes sense because, for example, if you need a tool or product in a certain amount of time, you don't want to risk leaving it up to a computer because, like you said, too many variables.

Not to mention that problems could arise that a computer wouldn't be the best at solving, like a blown engine and needing another trucker to pick it up, or finding reliable drivers and the best drivers for important loads.

[jfkbengals]

Easy answer is "No". Most logistics companies are brokers dealing with numerous independent drivers. Those independent owner/operators are not always reliable to show up when and where they are supposed to. No algorithm is going to be capable of preventing this, and the only thing that keeps the wheels from falling off for these companies when that happens is the human relationships that are able to smooth things over. At least this is the opinion I've developed from my own experience.

[grampahol]

(08-15-2023, 12:17 AM)treee Wrote: Everything is going to be replaced by computers eventually. It'll take a long time for trucking and expediting though because of a lot of factors, including insurance, liability, and personnel management among other things.

Fear mongering might become computerized, but the vast majority of human population still has little to no computer access. Any idea that everything will be replaced by computers is the denial that human beings are always going to be far more intuitive than computers..There will eventually become the tipping point IF the vast majority of human population becomes unemployed and unemployable and begins to starve off. One big solar flare can wipe out a huge amount of computers in one fell swoop or a nuclear exchange..Then it's back to the drawing board with pens and pencils or even chisels and rocks..lol

[*rfaulk34*]

(08-17-2023, 12:14 PM)grampahol Wrote: Fear mongering might become computerized, but the vast majority of human population still has little to no computer access. Any idea that everything will be replaced by computers is the denial that human beings are always going to be far more intuitive than computers..There will eventually become the tipping point IF the vast majority of human population becomes unemployed and unemployable and begins to starve off. One big solar flare can wipe out a huge amount of computers in one fell swoop or a nuclear exchange..Then it's back to the drawing board with pens and pencils or even chisels and rocks..lol

Yeah, it's crazy to realize that only about 60% of the world's population are active on the internet. And actually owning a PC is more around 30%.