United Parcel Service plans to invest about $120 million to buy roughly 400 truck-unloading robots from Pickle Robot Co., adding hardware to one of the most labor-intensive jobs in logistics: emptying trucks and shipping containers.
Physical AI on the loading dock
Pickle's trailer-unloading robot uses a single robotic arm on a mobile base that drives into a container, lifts boxes weighing up to 50 lb (22.5 kg) with suction grippers, and places them on an onboard conveyor. The Charlestown, Massachusetts company says the system unloads 400 to 1,500 cases per hour depending on freight, typically paying for itself within 18 months.
Inside UPS's Network of the Future
The purchase is part of UPS's "Network of the Future" initiative, which targets $3 billion in savings by the end of 2028 and up to $9 billion in automation spending. UPS is rolling out 63 automation projects across the U.S. and aims to more than triple its number of automated buildings. The company has also closed operations at 93 facilities and cut 34,000 jobs this year.
One vendor among many
Pickle joins a roster of automation suppliers at UPS that includes Dexterity, Plus One Robotics and Fortna for pick-and-place, plus mobile robots from Geek+, Locus and Toyota-Raymond. The deal reflects the same warehouse-automation wave reshaping operators like Maersk, vendors such as Plus One Robotics, and research into warehouse robot traffic optimization.
Reporting based on coverage from Automated Warehouse and Bloomberg.