Intelligent and efficient? An empirical analysis of human–AI collaboration for truck drivers in retail logistics

Purpose Technological advances regarding artificial intelligence (AI) are affecting the transport sector. Although fully autonomous delivery, or self-driving trucks, are not operating currently, various AI applications have become fixed components of cargo vehicles. Since many research approaches primarily concentrate on the technical aspects of assistance systems (ASs), the economic question of how to improve efficiency is seldom addressed. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to apply an efficiency analysis to measure the performance of truck drivers supplying retail stores. Design/methodology/approach For this comparative study, 90 professional truck drivers in three groups are compared with (1) trucks without AS, (2) trucks with AS that cannot be turned off and (3) trucks with AS that can be turned off. First, we build a model investigating the impact of performance expectation, effort expectation, social influence and facilitating conditions on the behavioural intention to use AS. Second, we explore the impact of truck drivers' behavioural intention on actual technology use, misuse and disuse; operationalize these constructs; and merge them with our behavioural constructs to create one econometric model. Findings The human–AI system was found to be the most efficient. Additionally, behavioural intention to use ASs did not lead to actual usage in the AI-alone observation group, but did in the human–AI group. Several in-depth analyses showed that the AI-alone group used AS at a higher level than the human–AI group, but manipulations through, for example, kickdowns or manual break operations led to conscious overriding of the cruise control system and, consequently, to higher diesel consumption, higher variable costs and lower efficiency of transport logistical operations. Research limitations/implications Efficiency analysis with data envelopment analysis is, by design, limited by the applied input and output factors. Originality/value This study represents one of the first quantitative efficiency analyses of the impact of digitalization on transport performance (i.e. truck driver efficiency). Furthermore, we build an econometric model combining behavioural aspects with actual technology usage in a real application scenario.