2022 In the Rear View Mirror: We Went The Distance

As 2022 draws to a close, it’s a natural time for reflection.

As we think about the past year, we’re deeply proud of the work we accomplished in delivering for our customers, for our communities and for our team.

Making a Difference for our Customers

We significantly expanded our commercial presence across North America and continued to innovate, partner and collaborate to ensure safe, timely and cost-effective autonomous deliveries for our customers.

We’re now delivering Georgia-Pacific brands like Quilted Northern® bath tissue and Dixie® products to a network of over 30 Sam’s Clubs locations in Dallas, Texas thanks to a partnership with Georgia-Pacific and KBX. This is the first time class 6 autonomous box trucks have been deployed to disrupt short-haul logistics networks traditionally involving class 8 trucks, enabling Gatik to enhance service levels and product flow — providing unparalleled reliability, speed and consistency to our customer. To underscore just how effective this partnership is, our operations will increase the number of Georgia-Pacific fulfillment runs to Sam’s Club locations from 1–2 days per week to 2–4 days per week. It’s a hyper-efficient, customer-centric model designed to reduce overstocked items, create more space for in-demand items and increase sales of available goods to Sam’s Club customers.

We also announced a partnership with Pitney Bowes, in which our industry-leading autonomous fleet will transport high-priority shipments across a network of known, repeatable routes to accelerate delivery frequency — establishing a continuous, operational loop across the Pitney Bowes E-commerce logistics network in Dallas. With our autonomous fleet that’s purpose built for B2B short-haul logistics, we’re able to take out a significant portion of cost from the Pitney Bowes logistics equation and share those benefits back with our customer in the form of year over year discounts — all while inflation continues to drive transportation costs up. By reducing both cost and complexity, we’re enabling Pitney Bowes to better serve their clients at a time when E-commerce sales are rising dramatically and traditional capacity is increasingly strained with assets and driver shortages.

Gatik and Pitney Bowes Partner to Deploy Autonomous
Trucks for Ecommerce Shipments in Dallas Market

Scaling our Solution

At Gatik, we know the importance of developing partnerships with the industry’s elite to ensure we’re not only meeting the immediate needs of our customers, but putting the technical pieces of a national puzzle in place to scale our solution safely, and rapidly, across the country. In 2021 we announced a partnership with Isuzu to implement OEM-grade redundancies for our medium-duty trucks, a collaboration with Goodyear to equip our fleet with tire intelligence technology to improve stopping distances and monitor tire pressure in real time for enhanced safety, and established a strategic partnership with Ryder to leverage their national leasing, servicing and fleet maintenance expertise while ensuring we maintain direct customer relationships and remain asset light.

This year we announced our partnership with Cummins to integrate our autonomous driving system with Cummins’ advanced powertrain solution for our fleet of medium-duty trucks, and entered into a strategic partnership with ChargePoint to develop an electric ecosystem for autonomous vehicles designed to maximize sustainability, operational efficiency and economics for Gatik’s customers across North America.

Gatik and Cummins Integrate Gatik’s Autonomous Driving Technology
with Cummins’ Advanced Powertrain in Next-Generation Autonomous Fleet

Safety, Delivered

Safety is at the heart of everything we do at Gatik; it’s deeply entrenched across the fabric of the organization. We integrate safety into all facets of our business, from initial concept to commercial deployment. It spans every level of our technology, processes and operations, and resides deep in the cultural make-up of the company. That’s why we were particularly proud of the results of an independent safety assessment conducted prior to launching the first ever fully driverless commercial operations in Canada with the nation’s leading food and pharmacy retailer, Loblaw Companies Limited.

We passed with flying colors, with the analysis reporting clear and comprehensive validation that Gatik’s fully driverless technology is acceptably safe to operate on public roads.

At a time when supply chain issues were soaring, and vehicle accidents were on the rise, Gatik’s autonomous vehicles soldiered on — safely and efficiently delivering the goods and products that so many depend on in communities across the country.

Gatik’s Unique Company Culture

With over 100 employees now, we’ve been hiring and scaling at a phenomenal pace to meet rising customer demands. Yet despite the brisk tempo that is endemic to any high-growth startup, we’ve created a positive culture where respect, collaboration and mutual support is not only prioritized — it’s the norm.

We’ve also built highly effective best practices for how we work, so our team members not only understand their role relative to the mission, they are given the space they need to be the best they can be. Our offices across North America — in California, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Ontario — feel alive, and are brimming with some of the brightest minds in software engineering, hardware, fleet management, systems safety and community engagement. We’re actively hiring across every department, so if you’re keen to contribute to our mission, check out our latest vacancies.

Delivering on the Promise of Autonomy

After being named a TIME Best Invention, a Fast Company World Changing Idea, a Forbes Best Startup Employer and a FreightWaves FreightTech 25 winner this year, among others, we are not resting on our laurels.

2022 was big, but 2023 is going to be even bigger: we will have hundreds of autonomous trucks on the road across North America by year-end, be announcing several new segment-changing commercial partnerships, densifying our presence in existing markets and expanding to new ones, as well as expanding our headcount to 250 employees across the US and Canada.

It’s been quite a journey, and we’re thrilled to have everyone along for the ride.

We’ll see you next year — it’s going to be busy!