Why I Joined Embark to Build the Trucking Industry of the Future

Embark hires Sam Loesche to lead federal policy and establish ties with truck drivers and their representatives.

I’m driven by a desire to help people. For nearly fifteen years I scratched that itch by dedicating my career to making sure people earned enough money to put food on the table, weren’t putting their lives at risk just by showing up to work, and especially during my last eight years working for the Teamsters, making sure truckers and other frontline transportation workers had a powerful voice on the job.

Since I joined Embark, a few people have asked me if I had a change of heart. If the company’s technology would upend the same type of middle-class jobs I’d spent my entire career fighting to protect. As the person who led these issues at the most powerful trucking union in the country, and as a true believer in the union movement, I understand why they would ask. And yet my answer has been unequivocal; “No, I haven’t had a change of heart at all.”

I’m among the first to acknowledge that the two ideas seem inconsistent; that a transformative autonomous driving technology could actually work side-by-side with human operators, even improving the lives of thousands of drivers. But a trucker’s job includes a host of responsibilities that go beyond just driving. These job duties will ensure they continue to have a core role in the industry for as long as I’m around. For example, human drivers are key for navigating complex urban environments or on trips that require them to unload cargo or interface with customers. Humans will continue to be needed in areas with poor road conditions, where security concerns require that a truck’s load can’t be left unattended, or where unstable cargo requires constant adjustments to make sure it stays put.

These realities will insulate hundreds of thousands of drivers from ever having to worry whether autonomous trucking will impact their jobs. That’s before we even take into account the new positions that will be created by this industry: remote monitoring staff, pre- and post-trip inspection specialists, autonomous vehicle hostlers, and more. These new positions will grow exponentially in the years to come and will offer unique opportunities for drivers, dockworkers, and others who want to take on new challenges or grow their careers.

Embark’s transfer points, the locations where freight will be shifted to a human-driven vehicle for the “last-mile” of its journey, will further help ensure the adoption of our technology is both efficient and collaborative. Transfer points will allow autonomous trucks to take over the grueling work of hauling freight long distances while freeing up long-haul drivers to take on more local trips that keep them closer to home. Instead of hauling a trailer cross-country, long-haul drivers will be able to move goods shorter distances from a transfer point to their final destination, and then back again. Tens of thousands of drivers are currently quitting long-haul trucking in part because of how difficult it is to live on the road for weeks at a time. The fact that these new, shorter routes will keep drivers closer to home should produce enormous benefits for both drivers and the industry alike.

The trucking industry has undergone a lot of changes over the past several decades, and my optimism about how this next chapter will unfold isn’t without precedent. In the 1960s, Jimmy Hoffa, the larger-than-life former president of the Teamsters, fought for “sleeper teams” to be introduced as a new type of operation within trucking. Employers loved it, Teamster members hated it. They feared that letting drivers spend all day and night inside a truck would destroy job quality for truckers across the board. Drivers also raised many of the concerns being discussed within the context of autonomous trucking today; the potential for job losses and an unknown impact on local communities. Fast forward sixty years and sleeper teams are some of the best-paid jobs in the industry. Their introduction had little tangible impact on other drivers, and these jobs have helped trucking companies remain competitive against both railroads and eventually air freight carriers in a low-margin and cutthroat industry.

That’s the same type of mutually-beneficial result that I see autonomous driving technology having on the modern trucking industry. I truly believe that our technology and human drivers can live in harmony for decades to come. It’s one of the main reasons I’m so excited to join Embark. Just like our human-driven counterparts, autonomous trucking is here to stay, and it isn’t here to throw people out of work. I wouldn’t be here if that was the goal. It’s been one of the most satisfying discoveries of my career to recognize that we can help move goods quicker, safer, and more sustainably, while also helping improve the working conditions and job quality of thousands of drivers.

I’m excited to work with truckers, policy makers, and fleets to make that vision a reality. The future is bright for human and autonomous truckers alike. Let’s get moving.