Volvo Group invests in AI-driven trucking company

Volvo Group Venture Capital AB, which facilitates the creation of new services and solutions and to support collaborations between startups and the Volvo Group, announced it has invested in U.S.-based aifleet, a trucking company utilizing proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) technology to build a fleet focused on increased driver satisfaction that it said boosts truck utilization with better planning tools and smarter algorithms.

aifleet utilizes AI technology to optimize route planning and scheduling and build end-to-end automation. (Photo: Volvo Group)

Founded in 2020, aifleet operates in the U.S. full-truckload (FTL) segment of the trucking industry, where a truck’s full capacity is bought to ship larger freight between set destinations. The segment is currently fragmented and challenged by low driver utilization, and facing inefficiencies like empty miles in the supply chain, the announcement noted.

“The U.S. FTL market size is $400 billion, but it’s a massively inefficient and fragmented market with half a million carriers, where even the biggest has less than 1% of the market,” said Marc El Khoury, co-founder and CEO of aifleet. “As truck utilization has trended downward since 2018, aifleet has developed technology to mitigate the utilization problem to radically improve trucking efficiencies, while bringing real humanity back to the driver experience.”

By optimizing route planning and scheduling and building end-to-end automation, aifleet’s own operation generates more than 40% higher driver utilization than industry average, the announcement said.

“aifleet is addressing inefficiencies in the trucking industry in a differentiated manner, building technology and proving out its capabilities through their own fleet operations,” said Joe Darcy, investor at Volvo Group Venture Capital. “Not only are they increasing the utilization of the trucks on the road but also making sure drivers have an optimized working environment.”

Stephen Roy, chairman of Volvo Group North America and president of Mack Trucks, said the organization is excited about the opportunity to collaborate with aifleet, adding: “The Volvo Group is committed to driving innovation and more sustainable transportation solutions, and it’s clear that aifleet, leveraging their unique technology, shares our ambition.”