Sam’s Club in Texas Deploys Self-Driving Trucks

This summer, the self-driving trucks created by the startup company Gatik, which specializes in the development of autonomous vehicles, will make their first deliveries of paper goods to Sam’s Club locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

The partnership between the company and Georgia-Pacific and KBX, the transportation arm of Koch Industries, was announced on Tuesday in a blog post published by the company. The partnership will bring toilet paper and Dixie disposable dishware to 34 of the warehouse club’s locations beginning in July.

Box trucks measuring 26 feet in length will be used for the first time to make deliveries. These trucks are significantly more compact than the heavy-duty Class 8 tractor-trailers that are generally used to convey merchandise to retail outlets. Gatik is able to make more frequent journeys along shorter, urban routes thanks to the smaller trucks, and the new company promises to provide service around the clock.

Gatik stated in a blog post that the company’s operations would boost the frequency of Georgia-Pacific fulfillment runs to Sam’s Club locations from one to two times per week to anywhere from two to four times per week.

The business cites the nation’s truck driver shortage, the demands on supply chains, and rising transportation costs as reasons for the broad adoption of driverless vehicles in its post.

Hayes Shimp, vice president of sales at Georgia-Pacific, was quoted as saying in a statement that “Once proven, we believe autonomous deliveries will enable us to remove cost and complexity from the supply chain.”

The Chief Executive Officer of Gatik, Gautam Narang, expressed to TechCrunch his desire to someday grow the fleet of autonomous vehicles beyond the state of Texas.

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According to Narang, “The first phase is targeted toward making sure that the network is ready for AV adoption. The aim is long-term. We want to deploy our trucks and get the network ready for nationwide expansion.”

Previously, in 2021, Gatik utilized autonomous trucks on a Walmart delivery route that delivered client orders between a Walmart Neighborhood Market and a “dark store” fulfillment center. This route was part of Walmart’s “dark store” initiative. The business claimed at the time that this was the first time in the history of the sector that a commercial delivery route had been delegated to an autonomous truck without the presence of a safety driver.

Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet and is another participant in the market, announced on Tuesday that it would collaborate with Uber to deploy self-driving trucks on Uber Freight, which is a platform that connects truck drivers with shipping companies.