INDIANAPOLIS — As autonomous, electric and other high-tech trucks hit the market, dealers must bolster their service and sales departments to keep up.
The autonomous truck market could reach $1.5 trillion by 2034, a more than fourfold increase from 2024, according to Global Market Insights. The connected truck industry, in which vehicles use technology to communicate and share data with outside entities, is projected to nearly quadruple to $115.3 billion by 2032, according to Fortune Business Insights.
While hiring and training staff to accommodate these growing markets can be costly, dealers must view training “as an investment, not an expense,” Nick Carter, a consultant for industry trade group American Truck Dealers, said at Work Truck Week 2025 on March 6.
“We try to tell dealers that all the time,” he said.
“Yes, you spend a lot of money, tens of thousands of dollars a year, in training your people, and you look at it as an expense. It’s not an expense. The better your people are trained up to do a specific job function, the better they’re going to be.”
— Nick Carter, American Truck Dealers
Dealers should focus more on safety protocols and technology when trying to sell autonomous trucks, and less on driver comfort and driver experience, Ed Ervin, an instructor at the National Automobile Dealers Association, said during the session.
“Technology is more about practicality,” he said. “When we move more into that type of mode, there’s going to be less on driver comfort features and more on just practicality, getting the job done.”
Financing models take shape
While the financing outlook for autonomous trucks is still uncertain due to lack of data and minimal inventory on dealer lots, lenders are working to solidify financing models, American Truck Dealers’ Carter told Equipment Finance News.
“There are lenders right now that are working on what [the financing] landscape is going to look like. Is it your straight, traditional financing? Would leasing be a better position for autonomous vehicles? So, it’s being talked about, but there’s nothing definitive out there right now.”
— Nick Carter, American Truck Dealers
Connected trucks for efficiency gains
For connected trucks, telematics and data-driven insights have the potential to enhance driver performance and efficiency, Erving said.
“We use that documentation so that when a driver was driving in an unsafe manner, we could have a fruitful discussion with that driver and say, ‘Why are we having this many harsh brakes? Why are we having this many rapid accelerations?’ Being able to utilize the metrics to have those fruitful discussions with your drivers is what our customers desire,” he said.
Having the ability to monitor trucks is crucial to fleet owners and therefore should be an integral part of dealers’ sales strategies for connected trucks, Carter said.
“They want to know where that vehicle is, what it’s doing and when it’s doing it,” he said. “A lot of the fleet operations, the drivers are given specific route instructions to take. If that driver deviates off that route, they’re notified that there’s a route deviation, and they need to find out why.”
The third annual Equipment Finance Connect at the JW Marriott Nashville on May 14-15, 2025, is the only event for both equipment dealers and finance providers. Learn more and register here.
