Key takeaways
- Gatik and Loblaw have announced an expansion their partnership in hopes of rolling out even more autonomous vehicles in Canada.
- The new deal will hopefully see 50 new self-driving trucks on the road by the end of 2026.
- This deal was made possible by the Autonomous Commercial Motor Vehicle Pilot Program in Ontario, which has paved the way for the technology to flourish in Canada.
A lot more self-driving trucks will be hitting the roads in North America soon, after Gatik announced a substantial expansion to its partnership with Loblaw that will see 50 new vehicles on roadways over the next year.
The influx of autonomous trucks has been slow. While promises of massive changes to the supply chain have been vast, the reality of self-driving technology has been slow to evolve, with many companies still in the testing phase for the majority of their fleet.
However, this expanded partnership will see a massive injection of the technology onto roadways in North America, paving the way for logistics businesses to address the industry’s biggest concern.
Gatik to Add 50 Autonomous Trucks to Fleet
Gatik — an autonomous logistics company — is reportedly expanding its partnership with Loblaw — the largest retailer in Canada — which will see 50 new autonomous vehicles added to its fleet over the next year. Those additional vehicles will make it the largest autonomous fleet in North America.
“This is going to be the largest deployment of autonomous trucks ever seen in North America. We’re no longer talking about just single routes at Gatik. We’re talking about networks.” – Richard Steiner, vice president of government relations and public affairs at Gatik to FreightWaves
More specifically, 20 self-driving trucks will be added by the end of 2025 and 30 more will be added by the end of 2026.
More Autonomous Vehicles Coming to Canada
The partnership between Gatik and Loblaw does not exist in a vacuum. On the contrary, this expansion was made possible by the Autonomous Commercial Motor Vehicle (ACMV) Pilot Program out of Ontario, which seeks to test out the viability of the technology in Canada.
The ten-year program “will allow approved participants to safely test automated commercial motor vehicle (ACMV) technologies on Ontario roads to evaluate their performance and assess opportunities to improve road safety and support the trucking sector.”
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This program could have a big impact on how the supply chain operates over the next decade, with the trucker shortage and other logistics disruptions poised to create some serious problems for the industry without a significant change to how things are done.
Trucker Shortages & Autonomous Vehicles
In 2025, the trucker shortage remains one of the biggest problems facing the industry. Our data found that 69% of logistics businesses say that driver shortages have had an impact on their ability to meet freight demand.
Obviously, the use of self-driving trucks is widely considered one of the easiest ways to alleviate this stress, with 17% of professionals stating that autonomous trucks, ships, and drones are going to have the most disruptive impact over the next two to three years.
Suffice to say, this partnership from Gatik could just be a small stepping stone to the autonomous future expected throughout the logistics industry. That is, of course, if safety remains a priority over rapid expansion.
