Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE: R), a leader in commercial fleet management, dedicated transportation, and supply chain solutions, announced today the successful transformation of Ryder smart warehouses in the Miami, Dallas, and Chicago markets. These transformed warehouses – or showcase sites – deliver advanced automation, flexible and instantly scalable operations, real-time visibility, and a customer-centric experience. The warehouses, established for three leading global consumer brands, bring together innovative startup technologies and smart capabilities customized to optimize operations and best serve customer needs.

The Ryder smart warehouse showcase sites feature advanced automation, such as state-of-the-art robotics; autonomous vehicles and drones; sensors and automatic identification tools; and wearable technology, like smart glasses and ring scanners.

Smart Warehouse Technologies

Ryder has identified the technology below as definitive benchmarks of an effective smart warehouse, and each area of innovation is already delivering significant improvements for customers:

• Robotics – The implementation of robotics throughout a Ryder-managed warehouse produced a 25-percent increase in productivity and 20-percent operating savings, simply by reducing travel time in the warehouse, which can account for 30 percent of an employee’s shift.
• Drones – At a Ryder customer warehouse, drones successfully scanned pallets and locations in 20 minutes, compared to a manual scan which took 90 minutes. Additionally, a cycle count on the entire warehouse took just three hours versus two days. The drone can also identify available pallet locations and verify product placement.
• Sensors – Identification tools provide real-time asset location and enable performance management. When implemented throughout a Ryder facility, productivity and cost savings increased more than 25 percent.
• Wearables – When Ryder deployed smart glasses at a customer warehouse to improve picking processes, the time it took to pick and scan inventory decreased by five to seven seconds per item and improved efficiency by 33 percent.

“We are evaluating advanced technology and automation solutions that require minimum investment but deliver maximum return,” said Steve Sensing, Ryder President of Global Supply Chain Solutions. “We focus on technologies that are mobile, flexible, and scalable, so they can flex with changing demands. As Ryder customers continue to face increasing omni-channel fulfillment demands, rising consumer expectations, and a nationwide warehouse labor shortage, we will continue to innovate and automate the parts of the process that make sense.”

Partners in Technology

As an industry-leader in sourcing and implementing new technologies, Ryder has partnered with several innovative start-ups like Fetch Robotics to provide the technologies that bring what was once considered the warehouse-of-the-future to life.

“Ryder – with its established network and broad bench of diverse customers – is the ideal partner for Fetch Robotics to implement our advanced robotics platform,” said Melonee Wise, CEO of Fetch Robotics. “Together, our companies can provide autonomous mobile robot solutions to serve both warehouse employees and Ryder’s customers; ultimately making supply chain and logistics safer and more efficient. Our top priority is to help our customers achieve on-demand automation with a fast, flexible and scalable cloud-based platform that minimizes strenuous manual labor and streamlines inventory processes. We’re seeing this come to life successfully through the smart warehouses Ryder has developed.”

About Ryder Supply Chain Solutions

Ryder Supply Chain Solutions optimizes logistics networks to make them more responsive and able to be leveraged as a competitive advantage. Globally-recognized brands in the automotive, consumer goods, food and beverage, healthcare, industrial, oil and gas, technology, and retail industries rely on Ryder’s leading technologies and world-class operations to help them deliver the goods that consumers use every day.

Operating 319 facilities with 50 million square feet of warehouse space, Ryder offers flexible solutions as well as end-to-end visibility – no matter how challenging or diverse the storage and distribution needs may be. Ryder currently provides comprehensive logistics and supply chain management solutions to companies with operations in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and also contracts with more than 3,100 carriers in all modes of transportation in the markets it serves. Ryder Last Mile provides a home delivery and white-glove installation solution for big-and-bulky goods, with 136 facilities covering 95 percent of the U.S. and Canada within a two-day timeframe.

The Company, founded in 1933, operates behind the scenes, managing critical transportation and logistics functions for more than 50,000 customers, representing many of the world’s best-known brands. Ryder employs 36,100 people and manages a fleet of 253,800 commercial vehicles.

About Ryder

Ryder is a Fortune 500® commercial fleet management, dedicated transportation, and supply chain solutions company. The company’s stock (NYSE: R) is a component of the Dow Jones Transportation Average and the S&P MidCap 400® index. Ryder, which provides commercial truck rental, truck leasing, used trucks for sale, and last mile delivery services, has been named among “The World’s Most Admired Companies” by Fortune, as well as one of “America’s Best Employers” and “America’s Best Employers for Women” by Forbes. The company is regularly recognized for its industry-leading practices in third-party logistics, environmentally-friendly fleet and supply chain solutions, world-class safety and security programs, and hiring of military veterans. For more information, visit www.ryder.com or our newsroom, and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.