Companies are constantly looking for ways to optimise and automate their warehouses and production facilities: ‘optimisation’ has been the word of our industry for some time now. Yet one critical area is frequently overlooked. When it comes to loading and unloading, there is still an enormous amount of manual handling happening globally – and this is at a time when forklift drivers are scarce. Even facilities with the most sophisticated end-of-line processes often stop short of automating the unloading stage.

As labour availability tightens and pressure around safety and throughput continues to build, more companies are set to achieve 100% end-of-line automation, including inbound flows into the warehouse and outbound loading. But why 2026? Not least because the benefits of loading automation are now accessible to warehouses of all sizes and levels of automation maturity.

Automated loading is still a best-kept secret

Dependency on manual loading remains high, even though the advantages of automation are well established, including:

Safety: One of the strongest reasons to automate the loading and unloading process is to improve safety. Despite a lot of great advances in forklift safety and countless innovations around the loading bay, it remains a danger zone so long as processes are manual. Forklift operators are under pressure to load and unload quickly, and there’s operational pressure to turn trailers around fast. Statistics show that for every number of forklift-driven kilometres, there are a corresponding number of near-misses and, eventually, an accident. Automated loading dramatically reduces forklift mileage, which means fewer near-misses and fewer accidents every year.

Speed: Beyond safety, a fully automated system can load a complete trailer in as little as two minutes. In comparison, manual loading with forklifts can take 30 to 45 minutes. That difference has a massive impact on shuttle operations, as faster loading means the same trailer can be used more times per day. As a result, companies can significantly reduce the number of trailers required, cutting costs and also reducing trailer idle time and congestion.

Space: Space is another challenge driving logistics operators to rethink their loading process. Manual loading requires wide aisles, large staging areas, space for forklift maneuvering, and multiple dock doors to maintain throughput. Automatic loading systems eliminate many of these requirements, streamlining the process. The ability to load a full trailer in just two minutes means operators can eliminate pallet staging and reduce the number of dock doors required: recent warehouse designs that are using full automation have cut dock doors by up to 80%, ensuring the warehouse footprint is as compact as possible, which in turn lowers construction costs, energy use and environmental impact.

Tailored automation for real-world operations

There are myriad benefits of an automated loading/ unloading process, but solutions are not one-size-fits-all. Each operation is different, and the right approach depends heavily on factors such as what’s being loaded, how it is being moved, which trailers are used and the level of throughput required. There are stunning, state-of-the-art ‘lights-out’ ASRS facilities for certain use cases, and for others, there are many warehouses around the world that require only low to medium automation. But their objectives are the same: they want to reduce manual activity, speed up workflows and improve safety.

What has prevented these companies in the past is that they needed to do so without modifying trailers or extensively restructuring buildings to justify the ROI. Now, solutions exist that are designed to fit within the existing infrastructure of brownfield warehouses and that are compatible with any non-modified trailer.

Conclusion 

Against a backdrop of familiar challenges, it’s becoming increasingly important for companies to consider the benefits of automation at every stage of the end of line process, and this includes loading and unloading. What sets 2026 apart is the practicalities of achieving this: automation is now viable for a far wider range of warehouses – including brownfield sites operating with standard trailers and existing infrastructure – to reap the benefits in a cost-effective way.