AVOID A BUMPY RIDE
Tim Absolom, flooring manager at Saint-Gobain Weber, looks at how the growth of online shopping has led to a change in the requirements of flooring in warehouses.
Over the past two years, the majority of vehicles on the road seem to have been delivery drivers and lorries so it isn’t surprising that the logistics sector is now worth £127bn to the UK economy.
According to Prologis, every billion pounds spent online requires a further 775,000 sq ft of warehouse space, but it’s not just floor area that the logistics sector needs. While we’re seeing more warehouses being built to cope with the shift from high street to online shopping, the logistics sector will also have to look to technology to cope with demand and compensate for the lack of skilled drivers, both inside and out of the warehouse.
THE RACE FOR SPACE In October last year, Knight Frank predicted that the growth of ecommerce could drive demand for 92 million sq ft of warehouse space across the UK by 2024. Five years ago, just 14.5% of total retail sales were made online. However, according to the latest ONS stats, this jumped to 30.6% in 2021.
TACKLING OTHER LOGISTICS ISSUES The scarcity of qualified HGV drivers in the UK has exacerbated the product shortages we are currently seeing across every
sector. This – combined with the UK leaving the European Union, Covid-19, and a backlog of HGV driving tests – has reduced the number of drivers and created logjams at ports.
However, it’s not just lorry drivers who are in short supply. The problem has now extended to forklift drivers too, with a recent study from Logistics UK estimating that from 2019 to 2020, there was a 21% decrease in forklift drivers. This presents additional problems as forklift operators also have to be trained and certified to operate safely.
PAVING THE WAY FOR
TECHNOLOGY In response to these challenges, warehouses are moving away from conventional narrow aisles, traditional racking systems and forklift trucks, to fully automated warehouses using automated guided vehicles (AGV) and automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS). Research suggests that ASRS could reduce labour costs by 60% as well as saving up to 85% of otherwise wasted warehouse space.
There’s a huge amount of automation already being used to combat staff shortages and improve efficiency, with some companies turning to robots to pick goods in the warehouses;
20 | INDUSTRIAL FLOORING
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