Locomation Inc., based in Lawrenceville, announced it picked up another major partnership with a trucking company, the fourth in the past year for the budding autonomous trucking startup.
El Reno, Oklahoma-based Stevens Trucking Co. has signed an eight-year commercial agreement with Locomation that will look to deploy the Pittsburgh company's autonomous technology across 500 trucks from Stevens, a multi-year deal that is tentatively set to start in late 2023 or early 2024.
The Oklahoma trucking company now joins Wilson Logistics, PGT Trucking and Christenson Transportation as the latest firm to partner with Locomation for future deployment of the Pittsburgh company's technology on its vehicles.
"My goal is that Stevens Trucking will be the first to market in our lanes with an autonomous truck service [from] Locomation," Kenney Stevens, CEO of Stevens Trucking, said during a press conference announcing the partnership. "We knew we needed to lock in our place at the front of the line when AV trucks start to deploy in order to be fully prepared with the freight needed to make this model work day in and day out. The bottom line for us is that the economics are profound and we want more than our fair share of the opportunity."
Locomation's total figure of trucks equipped with its tech now stands at an anticipated 3,100 units combined across all four of these companies should the startup deliver to these firms in the coming years.
Stevens Trucking's footprint spans all 48 contiguous states, though its 400 employees primarily operate in Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. During a press conference announcing the partnership, the privately-held company declined to disclose specific revenue totals but it said these sums are "over nine figures."
Locomation's autonomous solution for trucking relies on its Autonomous Relay Convoy (ARC) concept. With ARC, Locomation's partners can have two trucks electronically tethered together, with the first being controlled by a human driver while a second driver rests in the autonomously-operated follower truck behind the first. The leading truck and driver roles swap periodically throughout a trip to allow the drivers to take turns resting, which also allows for the functioning time of the two trucks to double, reaching between 20-22 hours per day. Locomation also touts that this increases fuel efficiencies and overall hauling capacities for its partnering companies, among other feats.
"This is very big news for Locomation; we now have four bona fide contracts that enable these premier carriers to provide real moneymaking autonomous truck services to their customers when the ARC system starts deploying," Çetin Meriçli, co-founder and CEO of Locomation, said. "We are preparing to be the first autonomous technology company to deploy trucks safely, legally and profitably in commercial operations at scale across the United States. We are very pleased to enter this partnership with Stevens Trucking. We deeply appreciate their confidence in us and we are thrilled to be working with them."
Getting these trucks deployed on public roads for commercial means is still at least a year out and it will take multiple years for Locomation to furnish the more than 3,000 trucks it has signed up so far to receive its tech across dozens of identified freight segments throughout the country.
"We're looking to load this up with about 10,000 trucks total," Glynn Spangenberg, chief commercial officer at Locomation, said. "We have 68 of these ARC segments; we're not going to do all 68 as we launch, but we're building very descriptively these autonomous relay network segments, and we're interested in talking to carriers who believe, like Stevens Trucking, that they can provide the premium service and efficient movement of autonomous trucks through the network and do that for partner-to-partner throughout this particular model."
Meriçli, alongside four others, founded Locomation in 2018. It employs more than 140 people, most of whom work out of its headquarters on 47th Street in Lawrenceville.
