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Unprecedented endeavors have been made to take autonomous trucks to the open road. This study aims to provide relevant information on autonomous truck technology and to help logistics managers gain insight into assessing optimal shipment sizes for autonomous trucks.

Empirical data of estimated autonomous truck costs are collected to help revise classic, conceptual models of assessing optimal shipment sizes. Numerical experiments are conducted to illustrate the optimal shipment size when varying the autonomous truck technology cost and transportation lead time reduction.

Autonomous truck technology can cost as much as 70% of the price of a truck. Logistics managers using classic models that disregard the additional cost could underestimate the optimal shipment size for autonomous trucks. This study also predicts the possibility of inventory centralization in the supply chain network.

The findings are based on information collected from trade articles and academic journals in the domain of logistics management. Other technical or engineering discussions on autonomous trucks are not included in the literature review.

Logistics managers must consider the latest cost information when deciding on shipment sizes of road freight for autonomous trucks. When the economies of scale in autonomous technology prevail, the classic economic order quantity solution might again suffice as a good approximation for optimal shipment size.

This study shows that some models in the literature might no longer be applicable after the introduction of autonomous trucks. We also develop a new cost expression that is a function of the lead time reduction by adopting autonomous trucks.

DaimlerChrysler's research laboratory in Berlin has developed an autonomous forklift truck for automating materials handling operations. The first prototype is now in operation in one of the automaker's bodyshops. The next phase of the development program is to mount an intelligent robot arm on the AGV so that it can become a robotic production assistant capable of working both autonomously on the assembly line and in a cooperative mode with a human operator.

With various challenges in the digital era, stakeholders are expressing growing interests in understanding the impact of emerging and disruptive technologies on freight transportation. This paper provides a systematic literature review of the current state of affairs as well as future trends and aims to support stakeholders' decision-making in logistics management in the era of disruptive technologies.

Several recent and representative articles from academic, industrial and governmental perspectives were investigated to set the scene for this research and to serve as a baseline for electing nine emerging technologies, which were then used to conduct a systematic literature review covering the literature within the area during the past twelve years.

3D printing, artificial intelligence, automated robots, autonomous vehicles, big data analytics, blockchain, drones, electric vehicles and the Internet of Things were identified as the emerging technologies. The current state of existing research and potential future opportunities were analyzed.

Since the potential literature body is almost impossible to fully cover, a tradeoff between the number of emerging technologies and the related literature reviewed has been performed. However, the paper provides a novel approach to select the emerging and disruptive technologies and a systematic literature review to fill the identified research gap in the related literature.

The research support various stakeholders to better capture the current status of and the future opportunities in freight transportation and gain a clearer understanding of the disruptive technologies as well as to guide them in how to deploy these initiatives in future decision-making.

By providing a systematic literature review on the trends, themes and research opportunities in the era of disruptive technologies, the papers bring about broad and comprehensive review on the impact of disruptive technologies on logistics and transportation as well as opportunities to support management decision support in the logistics industry.

With the change in climate and increased pollution, there has been a need to reduce environmental carbon emissions. This research aims to develop a framework for reducing environmental carbon footprints to improve business performance.

This study uses Scientific Procedures and Rationales for the Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) approach. Articles are searched in the Scopus database using various keywords and their combinations. It resulted in 651 articles initially. After applying different screening criteria, 61 articles were considered for the final study.

This study provided four themes and sub-themes within each category. This research also used theories, methodologies and context (TMC) framework to provide future research questions. This study used the antecedents, decisions and outcomes (ADO) framework for synthesising the findings. The ADO framework will help to achieve carbon neutrality and improve firms' supply chain (SC) performance.

This study provides theoretical implications by highlighting the various theories that can be used in future research. This study also states the practical implications for the achievement of carbon neutrality by the firms.

This study contributes to the literature linking carbon neutrality with business performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the past 50 years of driver research from a historical context linked to the political and economic developments of the US motor carrier industry.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted and studies were targeted that exemplified eras of historic change pertaining to trucking published within the top-tier logistics journals.

Distinctive categorizations of driver research emerged: organizing era from 1930 to 1949, era of the collective mind from 1950 to 1979, era of the individual from 1980 to 2009 and the era of the driver as extension of the firm from 2010 to present. Research streams are highly influenced by current industry developments, economic conditions and the political landscape.

The chronological framework of research established specific time-based eras. An alternative framework or other emerging eras may be conceived as scholars consider factors in addition to those explored within this research.

Managers within developing countries may leverage the research within a specific era to help resolve driver problems that have already been researched in the USA. Scholars are encouraged to further study truck drivers as critical extensions of the firm in light of the advances in autonomous vehicles, drones and other technology impacting the motor carrier industry.

For nearly a half century, the turnover of truck drivers has been a major issue. This research provides driver managers with the knowledge to better understand and to more adequately provide for the needs and welfare of truck drivers.

This research is the first to fully connect the research and developments pertaining to the motor carrier industry, the occupation of truck driving and the historical developments of US policy and the economy.