A vision of the fully autonomous transport chain

McKinsey has published a report which foresees a “fully autonomous transport chain” that “will extend from loading, stowage, and sailing to unloading directly onto autonomous trains and trucks, with last-mile deliveries by drones”. The consultancy company’s report is an attempt to imagine how the transport industry will look “50 years from now”, after it has been reshaped by “digital technologies, big data and the Internet of Things (IoT)”.

The report imagines a future where “autonomous 50,000-TEU ships will plow the seas—perhaps alongside modular, dronelike floating containers” and “short-haul intraregional traffic will increase as converging global incomes, automation, and robotics disperse manufacturing footprints”.

McKinsey also advances the possibility that: “Freight forwarding as a stand-alone business will be virtually extinct, since digital interactions will reduce the need for intermediaries. All winners, closely connected through data ecosystems, will have fully digitized customer interactions and operating systems.”