A Democratic presidential candidate for the 2020 election is trying to raise awareness about the potential problems that job automation could bring by riding along with a truck driver.
On Tuesday, March 26, presidential candidate Andrew Yang, 44, shared video of his semi truck ride along with a truck driver named “Dennis” on his campaign Facebook page. In the video, Yang also stops at a truck stop to shake hands with truckers and truck stop workers.
Yang has been making waves in the trucking community by bringing attention to the possible devastation that automated trucks could cause to not only the men and women who drive trucks but also to the truck stop and motel workers who rely on truckers.
There are 3.5 million truck drivers in America. Another 5 million work in the truck stops, motels, and diners that serve the truckers and their vehicles.
What happens to the local economies when those trucks don’t stop anymore? This is not science fiction. This is real life. pic.twitter.com/ZA10DpMru2
— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) February 28, 2019
Yang says that he believes that human truckers could start losing jobs to robots within 6 to 10 years and that something needs to be done about the potential catastrophic disruption to the trucking industry and the U.S. economy.
In the video, Yang says that since the financial incentive to automate trucks and eliminate human truck drivers is $168 billion per year, he believes that some of that money should go to truckers.
You can view the video below.
Incentive to automate freight trucking amounts to $168 billion per year…
I am running for president to help the millions of Americans who have been left behind by the new tech economy. Truck drivers and other key industries have been the backbone of our nation.We must look out for them as self-driving trucks threaten their livelihood.
Posted by Andrew Yang for President 2020 on Tuesday, March 26, 2019