Further, Embark is subject to international, federal, state, and local laws and regulations, governing pollution, protection of the environment, and occupational health, and safety, including those related to the use, generation, storage, management, discharge, transportation, disposal, and release of, and human exposure to, hazardous and toxic materials. Such laws and regulations have tended to become more stringent over time.
Fines, penalties, costs, liabilities or the negative perception of failing to meet industry standards associated with such regulations, industry standards or laws, including as a result of Embark’s failure to comply, could be substantial, and could adversely impact its business, prospects, financial condition, and operating results.
The trucking industry is subject to economic, business and regulatory factors that are largely beyond Embark’s and its partners’ control, any of which could have a material adverse effect on the operations of its partners and ultimately on Embark.
The trucking industry is highly cyclical, and the business of Embark’s partners is dependent on a number of factors that may have a negative impact on Embark’s results of operations, many of which are beyond Embark’s and its partners’ control. Any conditions that negatively impact the trucking industry could ultimately impact demand for Embark’s technology. Embark believes that some of the most significant of these factors are economic changes that affect supply and demand in transportation markets such as:
•
recessionary economic cycles;
•
changes in the inventory levels and practices of Embark’s partners’ customers, including shrinking product/package sizes, and in the availability of funding for their working capital;
•
excess truck capacity in comparison with shipping demand;
•
Increases in fuel or equipment prices, which may impact Embark’s partners’ ability to invest in its technology;
•
industry compliance with ongoing regulatory requirements; and
•
downturns in business cycles of Embark’s partners’ customers, including as a result of declines in consumer spending.
Additionally, economic conditions that decrease shipping demand or increase the supply of available tractors and trailers can exert downward pressure on rates and equipment utilization, thereby decreasing asset productivity. The risks associated with these factors are heightened when the U.S. economy is weakened. Some of the principal risks during such times are as follows:
•
trucking industry may experience low overall freight levels, which may impair demand for Embark’s technology;
•
certain of Embark’s partners’ customers may face credit issues and cash flow problems that may lead to payment delays, increased credit risk, bankruptcies and other financial hardships that could result in even lower freight demand;
•
freight patterns may change as supply chains are redesigned, resulting in an imbalance between the geographies Embark’s technology is optimized to cover and its customers’ freight demand; and
•
Embark’s partners’ customers may solicit bids for freight from multiple trucking companies or select competitors that do not use its technology in an attempt to lower their costs or due to concerns about AV technology.
Embark’s partners may be subject to cost increases outside its control that could materially reduce demand for its technology. Such cost increases include, but are not limited to, increases in fuel prices, driver and office employee wages, purchased transportation costs, interest rates, taxes, tolls, license and registration fees, insurance, revenue equipment and related maintenance, tires and other components and healthcare and other benefits for Embark’s employees.
In addition, events outside Embark’s control, such as deterioration of U.S. transportation infrastructure and reduced investment in such infrastructure, strikes or other work stoppages at customer, port, border or