Asyad to Pilot Driverless Freight Trucks at Sohar, Salalah

Oman's biggest logistics operator is about to let robots drive the trucks. Asyad Group has signed a partnership with Chinese autonomous-vehicle maker Zelos Technology to pilot driverless freight transport at the Port of Sohar and Salalah Free Zone, one of three technology agreements the state-owned logistics giant inked on the sidelines of the Gulf Green Mobility Forum in Salalah. According to Oman Observer, the deals span autonomous freight vehicles, green hydrogen refuelling, and cleaner power for ships docked at Omani ports.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Asyad Group signed three technology agreements at the Gulf Green Mobility Forum, held in Salalah on September 3, 2026, and reported by Oman Observer on September 7, 2026.
• A pilot for autonomous freight vehicles will run at the Port of Sohar and Salalah Free Zone in partnership with Zelos Technology, a Chinese Level 4 autonomous driving firm.
• A term sheet with OQ Alternative Energy (OQAE) would supply Asyad with more than 91,000 kilograms of low-carbon hydrogen a year through a refuelling station in Duqm, enough for 8 to 10 heavy-duty hydrogen trucks daily.
• A separate agreement with Moon Rock Research & Development LLC (MRD) will assess onshore power supply (OPS) for vessels berthed at Asyad Drydock in Duqm, reducing the need for ships to run diesel generators while docked.
• All three deals are described as real-world pilots, not finished rollouts, meaning results and scale-up decisions are still to come.

🤖 Driverless Trucks Head to Sohar and Salalah

The centrepiece of the announcement is the autonomous freight pilot. Asyad plans to test self-driving vehicle technology for cargo movement at two of its busiest hubs, the Port of Sohar and the Salalah Free Zone, working with Zelos Technology. Zelos is a Suzhou-based company known for its "RoboVan" concept, a Level 4 autonomous driving platform built for urban and logistics freight that the company says is already operating in more than 100 cities worldwide, according to details on Hesai's announcement of its own partnership with Zelos.

As Oman Observer reported, the pilot is designed to assess the performance and efficiency of driverless technology under real operating conditions, evaluate safety levels, and determine whether the vehicles are suitable for Oman's logistics requirements before any decision on wider deployment. That is a deliberately cautious framing, and it matters: this is a controlled trial, not a commercial rollout of driverless trucks on Omani roads.

Ahmed Al Bulushi, CEO of Asyad Drydock and Infrastructure Services, put the strategy behind all three agreements in plain terms.

💧 Green Hydrogen for Heavy Trucks

The second agreement, a term sheet with OQ Alternative Energy (OQAE), lays groundwork for a long-term hydrogen offtake deal. Under the proposed arrangement, Asyad would receive more than 91,000 kilograms of low-carbon hydrogen annually, produced from renewable energy and delivered through a dedicated refuelling station in Duqm, per Oman Observer's report. That volume is expected to support 8 to 10 heavy-duty hydrogen trucks running daily, displacing roughly 1,100 litres of conventional diesel fuel each day.

It is a small slice of Oman's overall freight volume today, but it gives Asyad and OQAE real operating data on hydrogen refuelling logistics, something neither company can get from feasibility studies alone.

⚡ Cleaner Power for Ships at Berth

The third deal, with Moon Rock Research & Development LLC (MRD), targets a less visible but persistent source of port emissions: ships running their own diesel generators while docked. The agreement will assess onshore power supply (OPS) systems at Asyad Drydock in Duqm, looking at berth suitability, grid connectivity, technical requirements, and commercial viability, according to Oman Observer. If viable, OPS would let vessels plug into shore power instead of burning fuel at berth, a standard emissions-reduction measure in major ports elsewhere in the world that Oman has not yet deployed at scale.

🚛 Three Deals, One Strategy

Asyad is Oman's state-owned integrated logistics operator, built to anchor the Sultanate of Oman Logistics Strategy 2040, the national plan to make Oman one of the world's top ten logistics hubs, complete with three deep ports, three free zones, and an extensive shipping network. All three agreements signed at the Gulf Green Mobility Forum share a common approach: test emerging technology in live operating environments, gather real data, and use that evidence to decide what is worth scaling. None of the three represents a finished product or a guaranteed future rollout; they are structured experiments with defined success criteria.

That pattern echoes a broader shift in how Oman is building its tech and logistics workforce. Programmes like Otech's AI talent platform partnership with Omani startup Remedy are aimed at ensuring the country has enough skilled engineers to run and evaluate exactly this kind of pilot, not just import the technology from abroad.

🌍 Why This Matters for Oman

Freight and shipping are two of the sectors where automation and clean-energy technology can most directly cut costs and emissions, and Asyad sits at the center of both in Oman. A successful autonomous freight trial at Sohar and Salalah would give the Sultanate concrete evidence, rather than assumptions, about where driverless logistics technology fits into its ports. The hydrogen and shore-power pilots, meanwhile, test whether Oman's growing green hydrogen sector can plug directly into its own logistics network rather than only serving export markets.

All three trials also reflect a labor-market reality worth watching: as Oman's private sector increasingly drives job creation, detailed in this omanvision2040.com analysis of private-sector hiring trends, the roles created by automating and decarbonizing logistics operations, from data analysts monitoring autonomous vehicle trials to technicians managing hydrogen refuelling, will matter as much as the technology itself. For now, none of these systems are running commercially. What Asyad has committed to is measurement: proving out whether driverless trucks, hydrogen fuel, and shore power actually work at Omani ports before betting the network on them.