Autonomous vehicles in warehouse management

Technology is advancing by leaps and bounds and artificial intelligence and robotics are making it possible for what in the past, just a couple of decades ago, was an unfeasible utopia typical of science fiction, to be achieved today and applied to improving the industries.

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Logistics is precisely one of the branches of the industry that is generating the most technological acceleration since electronic commerce became the new growth trend throughout the world. And Latin America is no exception, so today the logistics managers of companies face various challenges to respond to the growth in demand, regarding the need for a more efficient transportation system in the last mile of delivery of products.

As a result of this growing need to speed up delivery times to customers, logistics are beginning to incorporate autonomous vehicles into warehouse management. In this article, we tell you what features these new vehicles have and how they can revolutionize the industry in the future.

What are autonomous vehicles?

Autonomous vehicles and drones started making the news relatively recently when the German logistics company Deutsche Post DHL proposed the idea as a disruptive alternative in the future of transport to reduce logistics costs and carbon emissions by 2050.

Within this ambitious objective, this same company sets intermediate objectives to be achieved by 2025, which include developing and operating 70% of its last-mile transport service, with electric vehicle solutions that avoid polluting emissions into the environment.

In this way, electric vehicles, which are already beginning to be used in some countries, are changing the paradigm of transport as we know it, in the search for more sustainable logistics. But the fact that these vehicles are powered by electricity and not gas is not the only important ecological alternative.

Electric vehicles not only have the advantage of using electricity, but they are autonomous. This means that they can function without the need for a human driver, or at least not in the traditional way where driving a vehicle relied entirely on the skill of the driver.

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The future of drivers with the rise of autonomous vehicles in warehouse management

This new reality of autonomous vehicles in warehouse management raises a question that we will discuss in future articles: is the occupation of drivers in the logistics industry at risk since the implementation of this automation technology?

In principle, the answer should be no, since these vehicles, although they carry out a series of intelligent maneuvers that are usually carried out by human drivers, such as accelerating, turning, and braking, among others, there are supervision and monitoring tasks that will continue to fall to the responsibility of the drivers.

Even if artificial intelligence poses a problem on the route during a trip, drivers from where they are supervising the autonomous vehicle's journey can approve or reject the suggestion of the machine. However, it is also true that not as many drivers will be needed as before the creation of these autonomous vehicles.

Consequently, the demand for carriers will be noticeably lower, although not abruptly. The need for skilled drivers may gradually decline as self-driving car technology refines its capabilities and reach.

But this scenario in which autonomous vehicles dominate the logistics industry is still a long way off since not all logistics companies will be able to incorporate this technology in the short term, especially in the most emerging countries of Latin America.

So, for the time being, carriers will continue to deal with driving vehicles, although in recent years the application of GPS has been an invaluable aid for orientation and quick guidance on routes.

Autonomous vehicles in LATAM

There are various challenges when implementing autonomous vehicles in warehouse management in LATAM, but although it was not a priority at first since the pandemic, most logistics companies must manage a transformation aimed at automating logistics processes.

In the first place, the high circulation of COVID, in its different variants, increased the absenteeism of carriers and other last-mile logistics personnel, which represents a problem of resources to cover those personnel gaps that arise from the need to hire more drivers or delay shipments.

Some current technologies allow vehicles to be controlled remotely, allowing safer and more efficient logistics management without relying entirely on an autonomous vehicle. However, it is expected that in a short time autonomous vehicles will be incorporated by all logistics companies, because they not only reduce carbon emissions and costs, but will also reduce the manual work of drivers, and therefore, possible errors.

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In this sense, autonomous vehicles in warehouse management will allow the driver's experience and knowledge to be combined with automation and artificial intelligence technology. So, if we put it in perspective, these autonomous electric vehicles won't take jobs away from carriers, they'll make them even better.