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Driverless Electric Vehicles in Logistics As Well? The Answer is YES!

Nordlogway
17 July 2019

New technologies are playing an increasingly important role in the day-to-day lives of humans and the world of transport and logistics is no exception.

Just a few weeks ago, at the Munich Transport and Logistics Trade Fair, one of the sector’s leading European companies presented a self-driving electric lorry. This driverless vehicle can travel up to 200 kilometres, has a load capacity of more than 20 tonnes and, moreover, can be driven remotely in certain situations.

It is clear that these types of innovations will revolutionise companies dedicated exclusively to transportation: firstly, they will be able to reduce the costs associated with providing this service and, secondly, there will be significant energy savings and a lower environmental impact.

Even though in countries like Sweden these vehicles are already undergoing road tests, their full implementation is some way off as there needs to be legislation to regulate their usage and the technology still requires some perfecting.

However, for a company like Nordlogway, in other words a 3PL logistics provider, what would be the advantages of using these autonomous electric vehicles? All signs indicate that their application will be focused on optimising and assisting in the picking process in warehouses. Even though, as we have mentioned, this process will take some time to be fully implemented, some large companies have already begun to use these self-driving electric vehicles for certain tasks.

For example, the two great giants of e-commerce use robots and autonomous vehicles to prepare and box orders quickly and efficiently, with all the savings this represents. Then there is their flirtation with the use of drones to deliver orders to individuals. Likewise, some shipping companies have opted to use these driverless, environmentally friendly vehicles to transport storage containers in the maritime ports.

The future of warehouses is set to involve their digitalisation and a new generation of smart forklift trucks, which will undoubtedly facilitate the provision of logistics services. What is clear is that Industry 4.0 will revolutionise the logistics paradigm as we know it, providing faster, more efficient, collaborative and personalised solutions.

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