Webb Introduces Automated Trailer Loader

The SmartLoader, a trailer-loading automatic guided vehicle, was on display yesterday morning at the Jervis B. Webb Company booth (Booth 3047). The vehicle picks up loads from storage rack, staging areas or palletizers and delivers them directly onto over-the-road trailers. According to the company, this around-the-clock, trailerloading and warehousing AGV reduces operating costs and increases overall productivity.

"You have to have reliability, you have to have low cost, and you have to have safety," said Brian Stewart, chief operating officer for Jervis B. Webb. "Those three things are what this product does."

The vehicle reduces costs by eliminating labor and minimizing damage to products and equipment, all without requiring expensive modifications to trucks and ramps.

"It can load any standard truck on the roads today with any standard ramp," said Stewart, explaining that the SmartLoader is guided by radio frequency tags embedded in the warehouse floor, so there is no need to outfit trucks and ramps with guidance wires, lasers or magnets.

The SmartLoader runs on an eight-hour battery, which the AGV automatically recharges without manual intervention.

One beverage company is currently using 19 SmartLoaders and is planning to add 17 more. The customer, said Stewart, has already experienced "tremendous savings," reporting at least a 20% return on investment for its first year of installation.