Of course, it is hard to say, but I will say this: "I would be leasing all my transportation equipment if I were you, and, further, I would be signing leases with relatively painless exit clauses."

At other times and places, I have mentioned inflection points I have experienced in my career, beginning in 1970. The first was the calculator. Next came the Personal Computer (Apple II+). Next, spreadsheet software. Then, CAD software.

After that, or near the same time, we saw our first cell phones (called car phones at first because they were so big, they were mounted in your car). Then hand held cell phones. Then the Internet followed fairly closely by WiFi and on and on.

All of these technologies are about to be wrapped up to an extent they have never been before into transportation devices, used in your mills or over-the-road.

Pundits will tell you truly autonomous vehicles are just around the corner, others will tell you they are ten years away. Personally, I think the answer is somewhere in between, but I am biased towards sooner rather than later. The big driver (no pun intended?): the cost of human operators and the risks of liability human operators bring along with them.

Of course, these technologies will proceed at different paces in different applications. And as we go, we will learn lessons, good and bad, about them.

For instance, the Times of London reported on 9 February 2019 that a fire in a warehouse in Hampshire, England, caused by a faulty robot, left 300 firefighters dodging 600 other robots as they attempted to extinguish the flames. Obviously, safety professionals from several specialty areas will be dissecting what happened here in order to implement changes in design philosophy.