Chinese company Shentong Express uses robots to sort parcels. In doing so, the delivery company has managed to halve its labour costs. The robots are said to be a lot cheaper, more efficient and better at the job than humans.
Shentong Express is currently using the robots in two sorting centres in Hangzhou, but plans to use them in other places in China. A company spokesperson told the Shouth China Morning Post that the robots cannot yet take over all the work of humans. Workers are still needed to give the packages to the robots. The robots scan a code on the parcel and then know where to drive the order to. The machines charge themselves and can therefore continue working 24 hours a day. The robots can sort up to 200,000 parcels a day. At Shentong Express, the robots now work only six or seven hours a day.
Factories and distribution centres in China count more and more robots. Exports of industrial robots in the country grew by a whopping 30.4 per cent in 2016. The Chinese government earlier revealed that it wants to produce 100,000 robots in the country annually by 2020.
Editorial LogistiekProfs
