India, Aug. 8 -- Once upon a time, truck drivers were, well, truck drivers. But that was then. That narrative recently came under scrutiny in a conversation with the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at a new age logistics company with a global footprint who said that he looks at every truck in his fleet as a Formula 1 car. These are expensive machines that can cost a few million dollars apiece. That is why he insists the people who drive them be described as Formula 1 drivers.

But what is the DNA that binds an F1 car and a long-distance truck? To understand that, a good place to begin is the racetrack. Most people who follow the sport are focused on the race driver. But a modern F1 vehicle is less of a car and more of a high-speed, data ecosy...