Not many people give it a thought.
The UK has always been a trading nation and to ensure that we can deliver goods abroad and receive goods from abroad we have developed an interconnected logistics sector.
Air and sea freight interconnect with road and rail and make sure that the articles we ordered last week are delivered today.
I suspect that the vast majority never give a seconds thought to the processes that go on day in, day out, to provide this seamless delivery system to their door.
There are over 2 million people working in the logistics sector.
The lorry and freight-train drivers, pilots, management teams, route planners, pickers and packers and many others. This group of people form the teams that are working every day and night, to make sure that supermarket shelves are kept stocked and little Johnny and Jennifer receive their birthday presents on time.
But currently, there are large problems.
The Covid pandemic meant a rapid shift towards on-line shopping and an exodus of workers to their home countries.
The trend to online shopping, whilst slipping back, has remained at a higher level than before Covid.
The unprovoked invasion and subsequent war in Ukraine caused transport routes to be diverted, thereby increasing supply line costs.
The near global embargo of Russia has resulted in fuel and energy costs rising dramatically.
All of this has resulted in ever increasing hardships and consequently social unrest and strikes demanding higher wages.
So, the logistics world is caught in a many-sided awkward situation:
- The need to facilitate rapid turnaround whilst enduring a chronic labour shortage.
- Fuel and energy costs going up, and labour becoming militant.
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How can logistics companies resolve this situation?
- Automating their Distribution Centre has to be the top answer. This will speed up thru-put and minimize the risks of labour disruption in the future.
However, it’s all well and good to know what you want to do, but it’s another thing altogether to actually make it happen.
This is where The Logistics Improvement Group (LiG) have been of such great help.
LiG have decades of experience helping logistics companies improve speed of delivery, become more efficient and more profitable.
Their particular strength is automating distribution centres.
If you would like to know what they can do for you just go to
or better still give them a ring on 020 4587 5487.
Moving, improving or automating
your logistics business