By Colleen Konetzke, Principal
Our economy and infrastructure are built on the wheels of trucks – class 8 tractor trailers, cement trucks, utility trucks, and more. As the final, physical, on-the-ground tools for logistics and supply chain, trucks make our modern-day lives possible. The thing that makes you nervous on the interstate is what provides for your daily needs. For the purposes of this deep dive, we define “truck tech” as technology focused on use by and for the truck and driver – the most basic, physical level of the logistics value chain. We do not include anything related to brokering, matching with, or finding loads. Lots of venture dollars have flowed into logistics tech for shippers and brokers over the last few years, with very little focused on the carriers, and even less on the trucks and drivers themselves. This “The Blueprint” looks to see where investable opportunities could be in truck tech.
For those newer to logistics, you may be wondering – who makes these trucks? Who owns them? And who operates them?
New trucks (class 8 tractor-trailers) sell for $150-$300K, with class 6-7 trucks coming in at $50-150K depending on the application.
The owners of these trucks generally fall into five buckets: large fleet operators (including large private fleets or for-hire carriers), small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), owner-operators, leasing companies, and specialized trucking companies. Class 6-7 trucks tend to operate more regionally. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there were more than 577,000 active U.S. motor carriers registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMCSA) that own or lease at least one tractor (as of March 2024). Out of those carriers, 95.5% operate 10 or fewer trucks, and 99.6% operate 100 or fewer trucks. There’s a diverse range of ownership, with the largest logistics players having fleets of tens of thousands of trucks, to the incredibly long tail of small fleets belonging to SMEs or regional players.
In 2023, there were an estimated 3.5M truck drivers employed in the U.S. Truck drivers are on average 35-54 years old and are mid-career employees who have the necessary experience and qualifications to operate very large vehicles. Approximately 30% of class 6-8 truck drivers are over 55, which presents significant challenges as the driver population is aging. Obtaining a commercial drivers license (CDL) can be costly (roughly $3-$10K) and time consuming through training from a school or vocational program. Drivers must be at least 21 years old and meet certain physical health requirements. Between the challenges of obtaining a CDL and the lifestyle demands, recruiting new younger drivers has become tougher in recent years. Nearly all drivers (90-95%) are male; 5-10% are female. Most drivers have a GED as their highest level of education.
So just how important is heavy duty trucking to our economy here in the U.S.? The trucking industry is a cornerstone of domestic economic economic activity, enabling the movement of goods and significantly contributing to the nation’s GDP. It’s integral to the nation’s economic infrastructure, facilitating the majority of freight transportation and providing employment to millions. In 2023, the industry employed 8.5M people in trucking-related roles, including 3.5M drivers. Looking at preliminary freight figures, the trucking freight bill totaled nearly a trillion ($987B) in gross freight revenues (primary shipments only) in 2023. Trucks transported 66.5% of the value of surface trade between the U.S. and Canada and 84.5% of the value of surface trade between the U.S. and Mexico in 2023. As of 2021 (the latest figures available). there are roughly ~4M class 8 trucks on the road, reaching 4.5M if class 7 vehicles are included (and this count has likely only increased in recent years). The industry remains incredibly fragmented: 95.5% of carriers operate 10 or fewer trucks and 99.6% operate fewer than 100.
🚛 Get Going: Wake up in the sleeper cab or a hotel (if on the road) or at home (if local/regional). Grab a quick breakfast, check messages from dispatch, and review the route.
📋 Pre-Trip Inspection: Walk around the truck to inspect tires, brakes, lights, and fluids. Ensure the load is secure before hitting the road. This is one of the most important parts of the job and can take up to 30 minutes to complete.
⛽ Fuel Up & Log In: If needed, stop at a truck stop to refuel, grab coffee, and officially log into the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) to start the workday.
🛣️ Hit the Road: Drive several hundred miles, following the assigned route. Listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks to pass the time.
🚧 Dealing with Road Challenges: Encounter traffic, weather conditions, weigh stations, or DOT inspections. Plan fuel stops and take mandatory breaks per FMCSA Hours of Service (HOS) regulations. Generally, drivers must take a break after at most eight hours of driving.
📦 Delivery or Pickup Stops: Arrive at the shipper or receiver. This could involve waiting in line at a distribution center, backing into a dock, or handling paperwork for loading/unloading. Some truckers assist with unloading, while others rely on lumpers (paid unloading services). This can vary per load.
🍽️ Break: Stop for lunch at a truck stop, rest area, or roadside diner. Some truckers pack meals to save money.
🚛 Log More Miles: Back on the road to continue the trip. Some truckers plan stops to maximize efficiency while staying within their legally allowed driving limits.
📞 Check-In with Dispatch: Update on progress, ask about the next load, or get rerouted if delays happen.
🌅 Find a Stop: Start looking for a safe place to park (truck stops, rest areas, or designated parking lots). Parking fills up fast, so planning ahead is crucial.
📝 Post-Trip Inspection & Logbook Update: Ensure the truck is still in good condition and record remaining driving hours.
🍽️ Dinner & Relaxation: Grab food at a truck stop restaurant, shower, and unwind by watching Netflix, scrolling social media, or calling family.
🛏️ Time to Rest: Sleep in the truck’s sleeper cab (for long-haul truckers) or head home (for regional/local drivers). Set alarms for the next day.
As critical as trucking is, it comes with incredible challenges and risks. Operating such large, heavy equipment requires skilled labor for long hours and lots of time away from home.
🛠️ Safety and mechanical Issues – Breakdowns are incredibly costly. A single breakdown repair can cost anywhere from $400 to $1,000 for minor repairs, while major issues (like engine or transmission repairs) may run upwards of $3,000 to $10,000 or more, depending on severity. Towing a heavy-duty Class 8 truck often adds $500 to $2,000 to the breakdown expense. Operators needing tow are completely price takers as there is no time to analyze bids when dealing with a broken down vehicle. Finally, truckers have a saying: “if you’re not turning, you’re not earning,” as many are paid by the mile or hour driven, meaning downtime directly translates to wages lost for non-productive time. Labor costs due to breakdowns can range from $200 to $600 per day per driver. Adding to challenges, finding services such as parking, repair, and tow is incredibly difficult as truckers are often crossing remote parts of the country in unfamiliar territory.
One of the most significant dangers is being involved in traffic accidents due to long hours on the road, poor weather, distracted drivers, or mechanical issues. Tire blowouts, brake malfunctions, or other mechanical issues can lead to loss of control over the vehicle. In 2023, large truck crashes resulted in 5,078 fatalities and 86,842 injuries in the U.S. over the 170,716 large truck accidents reported.
🚦 Traffic & Delays – Unexpected roadblocks can throw off delivery schedules. Congestion was estimated to cost the industry $108B in 2022, coming in the form of increased truck operating expenses, additional wages, and wasted fuel.
💤 Long Hours & Fatigue – Managing rest and staying alert is crucial. Long hours and irregular sleep patterns can lead to driver fatigue, one of the leading causes of trucking accidents.
🏠 Time Away from Family – OTR truckers can be gone for weeks at a time. There’s no such thing as “work from home” for a trucker. This challenge has contributed to waning driver retention.
🥗 Health & Fitness – Finally, prolonged sitting, limited physical activity, and unhealthy eating habits on the road can lead to conditions like obesity, diabetes, and heart problems. Sleep apnea is common in truckers, increasing accident risks. Finding healthy food and staying active on the road is tough.
Some of these solution categories present more opportunities than others. There are already many large fleet telematics platforms on the market, and we’ve already seen consolidation in this space (ex.: Platform Science and Trimble Transportation). These have traditionally been more cab-focused, without much support for trailers. Ironspring saw this opportunity and invested in FleetPulse last year. Trailers are an often overlooked asset in trucking technology but are just as important as the cab – you can’t have one without the other. Autonomy and next generation trucks have seen lots of dollars poured into them, and many companies have risen and fallen as a result. Nikola just filed for bankruptcy, following Lordstown Motors and others. Embark Trucks, Starsky Robotics, and TuSimple have shut down or been absorbed, often after sky-high valuations. Several other alternative power and automation startups in trucking have gone similar directions. Camera-based safety has been commoditized too. Outside of these categories, we are excited about new approaches to safety beyond autonomy (perhaps leveraging AI) and technology meeting the needs of truckers in and around the cab. We see significant opportunities as well for innovation in driver-focused technology and creative approaches to safety.
Are you building technology for the hardworking machines and people moving goods around the country? Is your company solving for their unmet needs? Reach out to us at .