SKF TESTS AUTONOMOUS AND ELECTRICAL TRANSPORT OF GOODS

Global bearing manufacturer SKF is now testing an Einride self-driving electric truck to transport goods on a public road between the SKF factory and warehouse in Gothenburg.

“We have decided to reduce our CO2 impact by 40% from freight transport over a ten-year period until 2025. We therefore review our entire logistics flow from a

CO2 perspective. This is an example of initiatives that give us new opportunities to create efficient, sustainable and autonomous logistics flows that contribute to our goals,” says Mattias Axelsson, global logistics manager at SKF.

For SKF, autonomous vehicles are nothing new. The company uses selfdriving trucks, known as Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), inside its factories and warehouses. There are also advanced plans to develop a solution for autonomous loading and unloading of the autonomous truck, which can carry up to ten tonnes at a time. However, driving driverless vehicles on public roads requires a special permit from the Swedish Transport Agency, which the two companies plan to apply for together.

“With the partnership with SKF, we now have customers in all our priority customer segments: trade, consumer goods and industrial goods, which we are very proud of. Together with them, we will learn and grow quickly,” says Jonas Hernlund, commercial manager at Einride.

Einride is a Swedish transport tech company that develops and provides freight solutions using electric and autonomous vehicles. It was the first company in the world to drive electric, self-driving truck on public roads for commercial purposes in 2018. We published a full report on the company in the December 2020/January 2021 issue.