Complete Automation of Shipping Using ATLS, Automated Truck Loading System, 2003 Spring Technical Conference Proceedings

Paco Corporation, a Canadian equipment manufacturer, has developed the ATLS (automatic truck loading system) in order to provide an automated alternative to forklift trucks to load finished products into regular semi-trailers without having to modify the semi-trailer.

The development emphasis has been put on the flexibility and compliance of the automated system to existing shipping operations, in order to emulate forklift truck activities, without having to modify the docks, the trucks, the load patterns or the existing shipping practices.

The first system has been installed in 2002 at the new Procter and Gamble plant at Tepeji Del Rio in Mexico, where it has been handling the entire output of palletized finished products since the opening of the plant.

In addition of having greatly diminished forklift activities and the labor costs related to it, the implementation of an ATLS has allowed the Tepeji plant to achieve a greater shipping accuracy while requiring fewer dock doors and less floor space for shipping.