Gatik announced the launch of its fully driverless commercial operations with Canada’s Loblaw Companies Limited, according to the company's news release.

Gatik is now moving select online grocery orders, for Loblaw’s PC Express service, with a fleet of multi-temperature autonomous box trucks. 

“Working with Gatik, we’ve demonstrated that autonomous driving technology enables supply chain efficiency, moving more orders more frequently for our customers,” said David Markwell, chief technology and analytics officer, Loblaw Companies Limited. “Being the first in Canada with this technology and deploying a fully driverless solution is exciting and illustrates our commitment to making grocery shopping better for customers.”

Since January 2020, Loblaw and Gatik have transported more than 150,000 autonomous deliveries (with a safety driver on board), with a 100% safety record. Gatik said its fully driverless deployment represents the first time that an autonomous trucking company has removed the safety driver from a daily delivery route in Canada.

Autonomous delivery enables Loblaw to operate more routes and make more frequent trips, according to Gatik.

“This milestone marks the expansion of Gatik’s autonomous delivery service to Loblaw’s customers across multiple sites,” said Gautam Narang, CEO/co-founder, Gatik. “Canada is the latest market in which we’ve launched our fully driverless service, further validating that the tangible benefits of autonomous delivery are being realized first in B2B short-haul logistics. It’s a privilege to achieve this commercial and technical landmark with Canada’s largest retailer.”

According to Gatik, in 2021, the company became the first autonomous trucking company to remove the safety driver from a commercial delivery route on the middle mile, transporting goods for Walmart in Arkansas.