We've been yakking on social media about Hindu truckers in North America, and the variety this brings to truck stops sometimes.
FB friend: there was an article in the economist about the disproportionate number of Hindu truckers in North America.
Me: That's an editorial decision, to say "disproportionate" but they're Brits, disproportionately in North America from the beginning.
FB friend: I think it's great to find Indian food at truck stops. Curry is better than burgers.
Me: That's my vision of future truck stops: way more cosmopolitan in some hubs. They take over the malls, which are of dwindling interest to Amazon shoppers.The idea of a truck stop as more like a food court, with multi-ethnic cuisine, might be catching on in some areas where the shopping malls are feeling the pinch of Amazon. The truck stop of tomorrow might be more a mall than a gas station.
Silicon Valley is all about making trucks driverless, whereas the startups I'm looking at are taking up the real challenges that go with navigating the world's roads. The driver exchange program I'm writing about on Medium, and elsewhere, gives a sense of the new possibilities.
Me:
Just don't make truckers queue for hours or days, as if cargo inspection and substance control is your concern you can do that in other ways, away from any border, like the airlines do (screening is at port of call, final destination, say Cincinnati). You have plenty of tracking devices on your average rig, it's not going to just disappear on you (the owners are watching). Maybe the driver is with a global company and its citizenship may be indeterminate as companies are not responsible for authenticating citizenship documents. Open border states aren't surrendering the right to monitor carriers. Let governments play border games while transportation flows smoothly. That's probably more how it'll shape up in Asia. Lower48 has enjoyed open borders internally but doesn't play well with neighbors sometimes. The world is covered in sore spots, with or without open borders.
