Our exclusive Automated Vehicles in Material Handling: 2024 Usage Report takes an in-depth look at the current state of mobile robotics.
Transformation & Automation
This research was conducted in summer 2024. Respondents were reacting to global uncertainties as conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East continued. A series of elections around the world saw power shifts which did little to ease the pressures caused by high interest rates.
Automation is not a panacea which can solve these complex societal issues. But it offers unprecedented opportunities to meet some of the very real challenges faced by humanity.
A New Chapter
This report is a continuation of our research which was first conducted in November and December 2022. Our previous conclusions were published in the Automated Vehicles in Material Handling 2022/2023 Usage Report. It’s our hope that this series of reports will help you navigate the opportunities and challenges of mobile robotics and automation.
Key findings
Key findings in the report include:
- Staffing is a pain point. Almost 50% of respondents gave overcoming staffing shortages as a reason for adopting automated vehicles (multiple answers to this question were possible). In the last iteration of this survey, only 33% of respondents were concerned with personnel shortages.
- Forked vehicles are key. 90% of automated fleets contain at least one forked vehicle. This may be because “the proof of the project is in the repeating”: because automated forklifts are dramatically safer than their manual equivalents and suit many different environments, they are often introduced as a first step in automation, to be joined by other automated vehicles as they achieve ROI and business needs evolve.
- Pricing is important. 88% of respondents say vehicle price is important, very important or extremely important. In the previous iteration of this survey just 61% of respondents rated vehicle price as important, very important or extremely important. This heightened price sensitivity may be due to high interest rates worldwide affecting businesses and therefore an increased focus on capital expenditure.
As well as facts and figures, the report includes insights and commentary from our own team of logistics experts to help interpret the findings.
