Automation has upended many industries, and agriculture is no exception. More farmers have become interested in tractor fleets that work with limited or no supervision, potentially ending an era when trained and certified operators have to sit on the equipment to use it. Early examples suggest these high-tech farming machines may also change maintenance and repair strategies, shifting the role of tractor operators as a whole.
Enabling remote fleet management
A prime example of this change is Sabanto, an autonomous developer in the farming industry. The company offers a system that is installed on existing tractors and gives them many features that are common to autonomous trucks. These include advanced cameras and sensors for object detection, geofencing capabilities, and real-time monitoring from computers or mobile devices.
Sabanto was hiring for an entry-level position in August requiring people to remotely control and oversee equipment, giving a glimpse of how autonomous tractors may alter fleet operators' roles. Those in this virtual field operator job communicate with farm managers daily to receive rundowns of upcoming tasks, and then use a dedicated app to assign, manage and monitor a tractor’s field operations. Additionally, these workers must handle light tech support tasks while monitoring an autonomous tractor’s programmed routes. For example, if a tractor’s wheels get stuck in wet spots, the machines will pause automatically, giving the remote staff time to indicate that the tractor should avoid those places.
Although these details come from only one job advertisement, they do contain valuable clues about how the agricultural industry could shift in a few years, just as autonomous last-mile delivery vehicles do. Perhaps fleet managers will rarely or never physically touch the equipment they oversee, primarily supervising it via computer interfaces, apps or other tech-based options. But this change does have the potential to increase both efficiency and profitability for farmers
The benefits of autonomous tractor operations
As in the autonomous trucking segment the continuous operation of autonomous tractors means optimum resource usage and increased productivity. With fewer workers required for automated vehicles to run, operation costs are reduced, and automation eliminates manual errors, enhancing precision in farming and yielding higher crop yields. The precision of pre-programmed routes also means fewer chemicals in fields overall, which translates into greater environmental sustainability. Automation impacts the greater market, too — technology can address sector labor shortages and deliver data-driven insights to enhance the entire agricultural process.
A Dutch company, Farmertronics, told LINAK, a link actuator and control system actuator, adopted autonomous tractors to ease the work of modern farmers. Farmertronics founder Thieu Berkers said "You save personnel costs since there’s no driver, and it can go on day and night. Of course, the farmer has to make an investment. However, the payback is only four years. It’s another way of farming. It is more remote as the farmer can check everything from the smartphone or tablet."
Embracing automation enables agriculture professionals to stay competitive in an industry where severe weather, below-average yields and other aspects not entirely in their control cause complications.
Opening distributed service possibilities
Beyond industry production, the rise of autonomous tractors could also change fleet managers’ work scope. Some may spend most of their time at specific sites, handling all the equipment used on those farms, which may come from multiple brands but are equipped with the same autonomous technology. However, since self-driving equipment often has proprietary equipment under the hood, technicians hired and trained by the respective vendors may do most or all the repairs and maintenance these assets require.
Read more: Kodiak, J.B. Hunt, and Bridgestone complete 50,000 autonomous long-haul trucking miles
Technicians themselves may find their roles altered from handing not only diesel engines and mechanical issues, but also troubleshooting the advanced cameras, sensors, and control systems in autonomous tractors, even if only to determine when they need to send a sensor back to the manufacturer for replacement. Therefore, those involved in maintaining, repairing, or inspecting these tractors, whether fleet managers or technicians, must broaden their skills, even if they have years of experience working with non-autonomous fleets.
However, some technicians may spend their workdays attending to single brands of machines while working for vendors. One example comes from a company in the United Kingdom that will begin offering autonomous tractors through a fee-based service agreement. Participants pay based on the equipment required, the area covered, and tasks performed with the machines. Additionally, the price structure includes monitoring and equipment setup. Although coverage of this offering did not explicitly mention maintenance, similar programs often include it.
If that is the case here, or for “as-a-service” plans elsewhere, such as Noregon’s Technician as a Service offering, many fleet managers may transition to roles where they primarily work for vendors. That means their daily workload would involve assisting customers within a defined region rather than on single farms. They would likely only work on tractors within a provider’s product family, assessing matters once remote monitoring tools flag issues.
In these instances, fleet managers will wear multiple hats, occasionally shifting into sales or marketing realms when existing customers want to know about features recently added to the equipment they are renting. Many of today’s automobiles get over-the-air updates, so people make selections on touch panels to confirm they want to download security patches or upgrades. Autonomous tractors may soon have the same functionality.
Becoming knowledge leaders for new technologies
Autonomous tractor operators who wish to excel in their roles must set their sights on becoming knowledge leaders about everything concerning handling and maintaining this high-tech equipment. As these parties become more trusted in their communities, they will also convince others that the products they use and service are user-friendly and valuable for their current and future workflows.
Current operators are among the first points of contact for people interested in or who have these products, making them valuable information sources who are well-equipped to become knowledge leaders in this shifting landscape. Additionally, parties already familiar with autonomous farming equipment receive vendor-specific training materials, equipping them to provide relevant, accurate details while recommending certain models or explaining how features work. Some content includes repair and servicing recommendations.
Such examples illustrate how fleet maintenance professionals and tractor operators may become unofficial spokespeople for the autonomous tractor companies associated with their equipment. Once current operators and technicians feel satisfied with their new farming tech, they will likely spread the word to others they know, encouraging formerly doubtful individuals to consider the benefits of this technology.
