Gatik and Kroger toast autonomous trucking operations with City of Dallas and Texas state partners

Gatik AI and The Kroger Co. have announced the launch of the companies’ multi-year commercial collaboration, which sees the former’s medium-duty autonomous box trucks transporting fresh, customer favourite products from the latter’s customer fulfilment centre (CFC) in Dallas, Texas, to multiple retail locations.

To celebrate the progress made since beginning local operations earlier this year, the companies came together for a ribbon cutting ceremony with City of Dallas and Texas state officials including Tennell Atkins, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Member, and representatives from Texas Department of Transportation and Texas Department of Public Safety.

“You are changing the world,” said Tennell Atkins, City of Dallas Mayor Pro Tem and Council Member in his remarks addressed to Gatik and Kroger.

“We are looking at the 21st century. Gatik and Kroger’s cutting-edge partnership is making an impact in Dallas and throughout the state of Texas. I thank you for your collaboration.”

Over the past eight months, Gatik has made delivery runs multiple times per day, seven days per week across Kroger’s Dallas distribution network. It says that the operations have increased the speed, responsiveness, and frequency of fulfilling Kroger e-commerce orders.

“Kroger is committed to creating a seamless shopping experience for our customers – whether that’s through home delivery, a store pick-up or shopping in the store, and our collaboration with Gatik enables us to continue and enhance that experience,” said Ben Hamilton, Vice President, Logistics and Engineering Network Strategy at Kroger.

“What has always been important to customers is that they get what they need on time. But what we have seen through this collaboration is that as important as it is to be on time, it is also really important to have good customer service.”

“With Gatik’s autonomous box trucks, we are able to be quicker with our deliveries, and focus more on the customer service side of things, which ultimately leads to happier customers and repeat customers.”

“Texas is at the centre of Gatik’s commercial growth strategy, so we’re very pleased to see the tangible benefits of our autonomous trucking solution realised through our partnership with Kroger,” said Gautam Narang, CEO and Co-founder, Gatik.

“The support we’ve received from state and local officials throughout our journey in Texas has been phenomenal, and we’re excited to continue safely scaling our industry leading freight only operations in the state.”