Two cabless, SAE Level 4 electric trucks built by Einride began daily scheduled freight runs between two EASE Logistics warehouses in Marysville, Ohio, in late August, the companies said Tuesday. A remote operator monitors each truck off-site; no one rides in the cab.

The Marysville shuttle is EASE's third autonomous trucking deployment with DriveOhio and runs inside the Truck Automation Corridor Project. The Ohio Department of Transportation, DriveOhio and the Indiana Department of Transportation launched the $8.8 million, multi-year initiative in 2021 to study truck automation on major routes in both states. Einride and EASE expanded on a proof of concept the group announced in May.

The go-live pushes autonomous trucking past one-off demonstrations. "Daily operations in Marysville give us the proof points we need to keep expanding autonomous freight across the corridor and beyond," said Henrik Green, Einride's chief technology officer.

What does the Marysville loop actually move?

The trucks shuttle between two EASE facilities inside the city, a closed warehouse-to-warehouse run on EASE property and adjacent public roads. Failla, who leads EASE's autonomy work with DriveOhio, framed the current scope as a learning operation.

"Really closed loop right now between our two warehouses, just running things back and forth so we can understand what does it take from a manpower standpoint on either side," Failla said. "You still have to have a human load and unload those things. But what kind of obstacles does it see navigating around trucks, loading in, loading out, what time frames are best?"

Where does the technology fit in automotive logistics?

Peter Coratola Jr., EASE's founder, president and CEO, sees empty parts racks as autonomy's first commercial foothold inside automotive plants. Racks deliver components to the line and the empties must return; when a supplier runs late or production slips, empties pile up and a driver must be dispatched.

"Rather than holding drivers or continuously having to spot drivers to come get racks, this type of technology would be able to deploy essentially an autonomous supply chain that helps that carousel — racks go back," Coratola said.

"We're not talking about sending racks from the Midwest all the way to Texas. We're talking about getting them out of the plant to a pickup location closer where they can then go on an over-the-road truck," he added.

A single automotive assembly plant can combine 1,400 to 2,000 suppliers on one sequence trailer, Coratola said. EASE, founded in Dublin, Ohio in 2014, now hauls food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, retail and healthcare freight, but its operating model still reflects automotive-grade expectations: no-fail delivery, continuous communication, and identical service at 3 a.m. on a Saturday and 1 p.m. on a Tuesday.

Coratola also pointed to a rotation in supplier networks. OEMs spent two years consolidating around EV production, he said, in some cases trimming roughly 2,700 suppliers to about 1,200 and retooling plants for lithium. This year production is rotating back toward hybrids and internal combustion, and dormant suppliers are reactivating.

"It looks like their supply chains are reflected more of what people are buying rather than what they think they're buying," Coratola said.

What does this mean for drivers and forwarders?

EASE framed the deployment as additive rather than displacing. Remote operators watch the trucks continuously and can intervene when a route needs a human, Failla said.

"So with the aging population that just is a fact with our drivers, this is also giving them an opportunity to stay in the industry a little bit longer but get them out of that cab," she said.

Coratola envisions a division of labor at the plant gate. Planned inbound loads would stay with drivers; unplanned moves, the loads that spike costs when drivers are scarce, would fall to driverless trucks on a carousel timed around traffic.

"We can reserve the routes that are coming into the plant that are planned for the drivers, and the unplanned routes can be serviced by technologies like this that are running on carousel that might be, in a future state, hopefully less to operate," Coratola said.

What comes next?

The companies began collecting operational data on safety, reliability and efficiency after the late-August go-live. Tuesday's announcement did not disclose mileage, loads moved or uptime figures, and the partners said the next deployment phase and scaling talks with ODOT, INDOT and prospective logistics customers will draw on that daily-service record.

Failla pointed to a regulatory motive for staying at the table. EASE's autonomy work with DriveOhio dates back roughly four years, she said, and the company wants a seat as federal and state policymakers write the rules.

"There is some level of autonomy coming into the freight industry," Failla said. "And what we don't want is our lawmakers and legislators to decide what that looks like for us without someone who understands the operation at the table."