As lift trucks become key players in warehouse automation, forklift makers are teaming up with outside technology providers. Why are they choosing partnerships instead of going it alone?
Contributing Editor Toby Gooley is a writer and editor specializing in supply chain, logistics, and material handling, and a lecturer at MIT's Center for Transportation & Logistics. She previously was Senior Editor at DC VELOCITY and Editor of DCV's sister publication, CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly. Prior to joining AGiLE Business Media in 2007, she spent 20 years at Logistics Management magazine as Managing Editor and Senior Editor covering international trade and transportation. Prior to that she was an export traffic manager for 10 years. She holds a B.A. in Asian Studies from Cornell University.
Historically, most forklift makers have chosen to design, engineer, and manufacture their lift trucks themselves. While they may incorporate parts and components from outside suppliers, for the most part, they’ve kept the bulk of the work in-house.
But that’s starting to change. A growing number of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are finding that the best way to meet current and expected demand for technically complex industrial trucks is to collaborate with providers of the specialized technology they need. Often, that involves partnering with companies that can help them convert manual forklifts and pallet trucks to autonomous or robotic vehicles, although there are other areas, such as fleet management software, telematics, and safety systems, where these partnerships are flourishing as well. The experts we consulted say this approach is a true win-win-win, with benefits for forklift makers, technology providers, and end-users alike.
A TEAM EFFORT
So who’s engaged in these partnerships and how do they work? To find out, we asked several major forklift players about their technology collaborations—who they were working with and what they were working on. (We should note that the list of automation partnerships is so long that we can’t include them all here. But the examples provided by the companies we talked to offer a good overview of what’s happening in the market.) Here’s what the manufacturers told us:
Crown Equipment Corp.’s primary relationship is with JBT Corp., a provider of automated guided vehicle (AGV) equipment, engineering services, and software. JBT integrates its fleet management software, including some navigation technologies and traffic management controls, into Crown’s suite of DualMode trucks, which are designed to switch between automated and manual applications. This collaboration has produced a scalable solution that accommodates dynamic changes in customers’ operations, says Jim Gaskell, Crown’s director of global technology business development.
Hyster Co. has multiple partners, some of which also collaborate with its sister company, Yale Materials Handling (see below). For the automation of Hyster’s robotic lift trucks, the company has turned to both JBT Corp. and Balyo Inc.; the latter specializes in self-driving forklifts based on standard trucks. Both provide a navigation system, sensors, and software to control the trucks’ movements, but they support different niches in terms of capabilities, says Steven LaFevers, vice president of emerging technologies. Hyster works with JBT on robotic reach trucks, while Balyo automates horizontal transport in pallet trucks, counterbalanced stackers, and tow tractors.
Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas Group encompasses UniCarriers Americas, Jungheinrich, Mitsubishi Forklifts, Cat Lift Trucks, and Rocla. “The company currently supplies various forklift platforms to five partners, which add their autonomy technology to the vehicles,” says Brian Markison, senior director, AGV sales. “Some relationships, such as one with Siera.AI, are in the initial stage,” he notes. Others, such as that with Vecna Robotics, which integrates its navigation technology, learning algorithms, and workflow-orchestration software onto UniCarriers trucks, are in the next stage: modifying trucks to facilitate automation. Robotics isn’t the only collaboration area, though. PowerFleet (formerly I.D. Systems) provides Jungheinrich with a telematics and fleet management system.
The Raymond Corp. has collaborations for robotics, technology-assist sensors, and real-time location systems (RTLS), among others, says John Rosenberger, director of iWarehouse Gateway and global telematics. For example, Raymond’s Courier line of automated lift trucks was developed with Seegrid, which provides vision-based navigation technology and supervisory software. Raymond also collaborates with Sick AG, whose sensors are integral to the technology-assist features in the iWarehouse telematics system. And it partners with systems integrator Bastian Solutions, a fellow Toyota Industries Corp. company, to integrate lift trucks with other automated equipment and software.
In addition to JBT and Balyo, Yale Materials Handling has relationships with several other technology providers, says Kevin Paramore, emerging technology commercialization manager. Honeywell Vocollect integrates its voice-directed picking system with Yale’s semi-autonomous pallet trucks, allowing operators to use voice commands to direct trucks to a specific location or to follow along as they pick orders. Speedshield Technologies provides the technology underpinning the Yale Vision telematics solution. And Litum provides RTLS technology for a collision-avoidance system as well as a wearable tag that alerts workers when they get within six feet of one another. (Speedshield and Litum also work with Hyster.)
REASONS FOR THE RELATIONSHIPS
Ask OEMs why they want to add more technology to their forklifts and pallet trucks, and their answers are strikingly consistent: They all see a future where lift trucks will be integral players in highly automated, “connected” DCs. They also view technology as the most effective tool for helping customers address ongoing challenges like labor shortages and the need for greater speed, productivity, and accuracy.
But ask them why they chose to work with an outside partner instead of developing those technologies themselves, and their answers are more diverse. They include:
The tech partner has a proven, successful technology. While specific functionality may be at the top of an OEM’s wish list, the previous success of a potential partner’s offering is also important. For example, because Honeywell Vocollect had a proven, long-established product specifically designed for warehouse applications, Yale could quickly bring the voice-directed semi-autonomous truck to market and gain a “first mover advantage,” Paramore says.
The OEM can offer an innovative product while continuing to focus on its core strengths. Seegrid CEO Jim Rock believes customers are best served when collaborators play to their strengths. “Seegrid is fundamentally a robotics and software company with expertise in how to automate warehouse and manufacturing environments. The OEMs are experts in designing and manufacturing industrial vehicles,” he says. Combining their core capabilities allows them to offer innovative solutions that benefit from each partner’s deep expertise.
The tech partner’s expertise complements the OEM’s. Gaskell uses “synergy” when describing his company’s relationship with JBT. The latter’s experience and portfolio of navigation and traffic management technologies coupled with Crown’s robotics technologies make possible “a full suite of capabilities,” he says. Further, JBT has shared expertise and insight that has helped to “amplify and complement” Crown’s own automation research and development, he adds.
Similarly, Hyster’s LaFevers emphasizes the importance of “symbiotic” partnerships. “You have to make each other better,” he says. “If not, then you won’t make customers happier” or make their experience better.
Innovations can be brought to market faster. It often takes years for an internally developed product to pass through all the design, engineering, and testing steps required before it’s ready for launch. By working with a technology partner with an existing knowledge base, OEMs can streamline the development phase, Paramore says. “These partnerships help with speed to market, but at a pace that’s acceptable … for both the manufacturer and the end-user. A lot of integration work takes place to [ensure conformance with] the applicable regulations and maintain the integrity of the solution.”
The OEM can deliver solutions for a wider range of use cases. Partnerships can help forklift makers expand the type of customers and industries they serve, as Hyster did by partnering with JBT and Balyo for use cases and industries where they had significant experience, LaFevers says. With automated forklifts and associated technology costing some four times as much as a manual truck, he adds, customers want to be certain the solution will pay off in their specific application.
Markison agrees—“No one’s got a ‘Swiss army knife’ yet that can handle every type of application,” he says—but his company also considers whether potential partners are capable of handling large accounts. A handful of implementations of a great technology is one thing, he explains, “but what happens if I want 500 or 1,000? For that kind of opportunity, it’s worthwhile to invest time, money, and engineering resources with a partner.”
The partner helps the OEM keep pace with technology developments. Because the partner is staying up to date, viable, and relevant in its own space, Rosenberger says, the OEM is able to incorporate the latest advancements into its products—something that might not happen if the OEM were to go it alone on the technology front.
WHO ELSE BENEFITS?
By definition, partnerships are mutually beneficial, and joining forces with a large forklift vendor offers numerous advantages for the technology providers. First and foremost is the ability to increase sales. “Most tech startups only have a few business outlets and sales resources, but we have a huge national network and can quickly commercialize the solution,” LaFevers says. An added benefit is that the tech partner gains access to the OEM’s extensive network of authorized dealers, who will be responsible for servicing the product.
Partnering with forklift OEMs lets tech companies expand into the market without having to invest in manufacturing industrial trucks themselves (although some choose to do so). Collaborations can even lead to funding or acquisitions by an OEM. Examples include the acquisition by Hyster-Yale Group (Hyster and Yale’s parent company) of Speedshield Technologies’ telematics business in the U.S. and U.K., as well as its acquisition of Nuvera, a provider of hydrogen fuel cells and associated technology. Another is Germany-based forklift giant Kion’s plan to take a minority stake in its forklift automation partner Quicktron, a Chinese manufacturer of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).
Ultimately, though, all roads lead to the customer. In addition to achieving productivity, labor, and performance improvements, the experts say, their customers also benefit from the superior performance of a proven vehicle platform paired with fully vetted robotics solutions; the advantages provided by automation and other technologies in helping new and temporary employees work more safely and efficiently; access to a wider service network than tech companies alone could offer; and the continuing development of cutting-edge solutions that address not just current but also future challenges. “We strive to be predictive; you have to be ahead of where the customers are going and what they are going to need,” Rosenberger says.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The OEMs believe that relationships with technology providers will continue to evolve, and they foresee many more applications, products, and collaborations ahead. One goal that Hyster, Mitsubishi Logisnext, and others say they’re working toward is integrating more automation and other technology into their trucks on the production line, rather than through add-on kits. And in fact, they expect more lift trucks with built-in automation and other technology will come off the line ready to ship to their own or partners’ customers in the very near future.
It’s hard to know where the forklift technology market will be in five years, but Markison thinks we could see a shift from individual automation solutions to a more versatile type of product, perhaps with software controls that can easily be applied to multiple brands and types of equipment. It’s likely, too, that at some point, some of the tech providers will consolidate. His company’s strategy—one that others undoubtedly subscribe to as well—is to leverage partnerships that “will allow us to be on the cutting edge while continuing to succeed with our standard business lines.”
The opportunities for automation in material handling are vast, and the technologies involved advance very quickly, so collaborative relationships between forklift OEMs and technology innovators are here to stay, says Gaskell. “It takes a broad level of expertise to develop, commission, and deploy a complete system, leaving room for many collaborative relationships. We see these types of relationships enduring long into the future.”
Congestion on U.S. highways is costing the trucking industry big, according to research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), released today.
The group found that traffic congestion on U.S. highways added $108.8 billion in costs to the trucking industry in 2022, a record high. The information comes from ATRI’s Cost of Congestion study, which is part of the organization’s ongoing highway performance measurement research.
Total hours of congestion fell slightly compared to 2021 due to softening freight market conditions, but the cost of operating a truck increased at a much higher rate, according to the research. As a result, the overall cost of congestion increased by 15% year-over-year—a level equivalent to more than 430,000 commercial truck drivers sitting idle for one work year and an average cost of $7,588 for every registered combination truck.
The analysis also identified metropolitan delays and related impacts, showing that the top 10 most-congested states each experienced added costs of more than $8 billion. That list was led by Texas, at $9.17 billion in added costs; California, at $8.77 billion; and Florida, $8.44 billion. Rounding out the top 10 list were New York, Georgia, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Tennessee. Combined, the top 10 states account for more than half of the trucking industry’s congestion costs nationwide—52%, according to the research.
The metro areas with the highest congestion costs include New York City, $6.68 billion; Miami, $3.2 billion; and Chicago, $3.14 billion.
ATRI’s analysis also found that the trucking industry wasted more than 6.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel in 2022 due to congestion, resulting in additional fuel costs of $32.1 billion.
ATRI used a combination of data sources, including its truck GPS database and Operational Costs study benchmarks, to calculate the impacts of trucking delays on major U.S. roadways.
There’s a photo from 1971 that John Kent, professor of supply chain management at the University of Arkansas, likes to show. It’s of a shaggy-haired 18-year-old named Glenn Cowan grinning at three-time world table tennis champion Zhuang Zedong, while holding a silk tapestry Zhuang had just given him. Cowan was a member of the U.S. table tennis team who participated in the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan. Story has it that one morning, he overslept and missed his bus to the tournament and had to hitch a ride with the Chinese national team and met and connected with Zhuang.
Cowan and Zhuang’s interaction led to an invitation for the U.S. team to visit China. At the time, the two countries were just beginning to emerge from a 20-year period of decidedly frosty relations, strict travel bans, and trade restrictions. The highly publicized trip signaled a willingness on both sides to renew relations and launched the term “pingpong diplomacy.”
Kent, who is a senior fellow at the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, believes the photograph is a good reminder that some 50-odd years ago, the economies of the United States and China were not as tightly interwoven as they are today. At the time, the Nixon administration was looking to form closer political and economic ties between the two countries in hopes of reducing chances of future conflict (and to weaken alliances among Communist countries).
The signals coming out of Washington and Beijing are now, of course, much different than they were in the early 1970s. Instead of advocating for better relations, political rhetoric focuses on the need for the U.S. to “decouple” from China. Both Republicans and Democrats have warned that the U.S. economy is too dependent on goods manufactured in China. They see this dependency as a threat to economic strength, American jobs, supply chain resiliency, and national security.
Supply chain professionals, however, know that extricating ourselves from our reliance on Chinese manufacturing is easier said than done. Many pundits push for a “China + 1” strategy, where companies diversify their manufacturing and sourcing options beyond China. But in reality, that “plus one” is often a Chinese company operating in a different country or a non-Chinese manufacturer that is still heavily dependent on material or subcomponents made in China.
This is the problem when supply chain decisions are made on a global scale without input from supply chain professionals. In an article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Kent argues that, “The discussions on supply chains mainly take place between government officials who typically bring many other competing issues and agendas to the table. Corporate entities—the individuals and companies directly impacted by supply chains—tend to be under-represented in the conversation.”
Kent is a proponent of what he calls “supply chain diplomacy,” where experts from academia and industry from the U.S. and China work collaboratively to create better, more efficient global supply chains. Take, for example, the “Peace Beans” project that Kent is involved with. This project, jointly formed by Zhejiang University and the Bush China Foundation, proposes balancing supply chains by exporting soybeans from Arkansas to tofu producers in China’s Yunnan province, and, in return, importing coffee beans grown in Yunnan to coffee roasters in Arkansas. Kent believes the operation could even use the same transportation equipment.
The benefits of working collaboratively—instead of continuing to build friction in the supply chain through tariffs and adversarial relationships—are numerous, according to Kent and his colleagues. They believe it would be much better if the two major world economies worked together on issues like global inflation, climate change, and artificial intelligence.
And such relations could play a significant role in strengthening world peace, particularly in light of ongoing tensions over Taiwan. Because, as Kent writes, “The 19th-century idea that ‘When goods don’t cross borders, soldiers will’ is as true today as ever. Perhaps more so.”
Hyster-Yale Materials Handling today announced its plans to fulfill the domestic manufacturing requirements of the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act for certain portions of its lineup of forklift trucks and container handling equipment.
That means the Greenville, North Carolina-based company now plans to expand its existing American manufacturing with a targeted set of high-capacity models, including electric options, that align with the needs of infrastructure projects subject to BABA requirements. The company’s plans include determining the optimal production location in the United States, strategically expanding sourcing agreements to meet local material requirements, and further developing electric power options for high-capacity equipment.
As a part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the BABA Act aims to increase the use of American-made materials in federally funded infrastructure projects across the U.S., Hyster-Yale says. It was enacted as part of a broader effort to boost domestic manufacturing and economic growth, and mandates that federal dollars allocated to infrastructure – such as roads, bridges, ports and public transit systems – must prioritize materials produced in the USA, including critical items like steel, iron and various construction materials.
Hyster-Yale’s footprint in the U.S. is spread across 10 locations, including three manufacturing facilities.
“Our leadership is fully invested in meeting the needs of businesses that require BABA-compliant material handling solutions,” Tony Salgado, Hyster-Yale’s chief operating officer, said in a release. “We are working to partner with our key domestic suppliers, as well as identifying how best to leverage our own American manufacturing footprint to deliver a competitive solution for our customers and stakeholders. But beyond mere compliance, and in line with the many areas of our business where we are evolving to better support our customers, our commitment remains steadfast. We are dedicated to delivering industry-leading standards in design, durability and performance — qualities that have become synonymous with our brands worldwide and that our customers have come to rely on and expect.”
In a separate move, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also gave its approval for the state to advance its Heavy-Duty Omnibus Rule, which is crafted to significantly reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from new heavy-duty, diesel-powered trucks.
Both rules are intended to deliver health benefits to California citizens affected by vehicle pollution, according to the environmental group Earthjustice. If the state gets federal approval for the final steps to become law, the rules mean that cars on the road in California will largely be zero-emissions a generation from now in the 2050s, accounting for the average vehicle lifespan of vehicles with internal combustion engine (ICE) power sold before that 2035 date.
“This might read like checking a bureaucratic box, but EPA’s approval is a critical step forward in protecting our lungs from pollution and our wallets from the expenses of combustion fuels,” Paul Cort, director of Earthjustice’s Right To Zero campaign, said in a release. “The gradual shift in car sales to zero-emissions models will cut smog and household costs while growing California’s clean energy workforce. Cutting truck pollution will help clear our skies of smog. EPA should now approve the remaining authorization requests from California to allow the state to clean its air and protect its residents.”
However, the truck drivers' industry group Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) pushed back against the federal decision allowing the Omnibus Low-NOx rule to advance. "The Omnibus Low-NOx waiver for California calls into question the policymaking process under the Biden administration's EPA. Purposefully injecting uncertainty into a $588 billion American industry is bad for our economy and makes no meaningful progress towards purported environmental goals," (OOIDA) President Todd Spencer said in a release. "EPA's credibility outside of radical environmental circles would have been better served by working with regulated industries rather than ramming through last-minute special interest favors. We look forward to working with the Trump administration's EPA in good faith towards achievable environmental outcomes.”
Editor's note:This article was revised on December 18 to add reaction from OOIDA.
Global trade will see a moderate rebound in 2025, likely growing by 3.6% in volume terms, helped by companies restocking and households renewing purchases of durable goods while reducing spending on services, according to a forecast from trade credit insurer Allianz Trade.
The end of the year for 2024 will also likely be supported by companies rushing to ship goods in anticipation of the higher tariffs likely to be imposed by the coming Trump administration, and other potential disruptions in the coming quarters, the report said.
However, that tailwind for global trade will likely shift to a headwind once the effects of a renewed but contained trade war are felt from the second half of 2025 and in full in 2026. As a result, Allianz Trade has throttled back its predictions, saying that global trade in volume will grow by 2.8% in 2025 (reduced by 0.2 percentage points vs. its previous forecast) and 2.3% in 2026 (reduced by 0.5 percentage points).
The same logic applies to Allianz Trade’s forecast for export prices in U.S. dollars, which the firm has now revised downward to predict growth reaching 2.3% in 2025 (reduced by 1.7 percentage points) and 4.1% in 2026 (reduced by 0.8 percentage points).
In the meantime, the rush to frontload imports into the U.S. is giving freight carriers an early Christmas present. According to Allianz Trade, data released last week showed Chinese exports rising by a robust 6.7% y/y in November. And imports of some consumer goods that have been threatened with a likely 25% tariff under the new Trump administration have outperformed even more, growing by nearly 20% y/y on average between July and September.