Robots to the rescue

It’s hard to find good help these days—especially in the warehouse, where peak season demands and the ups and downs of tariffs have made it difficult for facilities to maintain the necessary staffing levels. Warehouse automation is helping many companies narrow that gap by handing over repetitive and mundane tasks to robots. Nowhere is that more welcome than on the loading dock, home to one of the warehouse’s toughest and most physically demanding jobs: unloading trailers. Robots are helping to alleviate that strain by replacing hard-to-find—and increasingly expensive—warehouse labor with automated solutions that speed those processes and free up staff for other tasks.Although still in the early phases of adoption, robotic truck unloading is advancing rapidly, as evidenced by vendor expansion and a growing number of equipment installations nationwide. Earlier this year, for example, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based robotics developer Pickle Robot said it planned to hire 50 additional engineers in response to demand for its robotic truck unloading system, which is already at work in warehouses across the country. Austin, Texas-based Contoro Robotics is experiencing similar demand: Its trailer unloading solution is in use at customer locations in California, Texas, Illinois, and New Jersey, with additional sites in California and Illinois—and its first site in Indiana—set to launch in early 2026, according to John Cook, the company’s director of business development.Pickle and Contoro are among a growing number of companies that offer solutions for unloading containers of floor-loaded boxes faster than a human can—and without the risk of injury or discomfort…

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