Welcome to the 1st October issue of Warehouse & Logistics News. As we went to press, people were getting concerned about the European Council President’s plans to invite EU leaders to discuss redistributing 120,000 asylum seekers across the 28 member states. What effect will this influx have on the UK labour market? We shall have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, business life goes on, and so does the need for warehousing and logistics professionals to make decisions about investing in equipment and premises. In this issue we have a feature on Fork Trucks, covering counterbalance trucks, side loaders, VNA, reach trucks and other specialist machines, and Doors & Curtains, including industrial doors, curtains and roller-shutters.
Whatever happens about the asylum seekers, we can take confidence in the UK warehousing and logistics industry’s ability to welcome incoming workers from different countries to fill our skills shortages. As the saying goes, we have the technology. After the EU’s recent eastward enlargement, the language barrier was expected to be a problem for UK employers and workers alike. Yet thanks to ongoing developments in voice technology, warehousing and logistics operations here and across Europe have been able to take on foreign workers in such key areas as order picking and bring them up to speed quickly, working in their mother tongue.
Bar codes are another example of a technology that has been transforming our industry, and doing so almost unnoticed. As our front cover story reminds us, the bar code label has been with us since 1975, and has been changing our world from shipping to shopping and beyond. Now Honeywell, a leader in this area since the early days, is extending its 40-year experience in designing barcode label printers with the introduction of the PC42t, an entry-level thermal transfer desktop printer that meets the needs of a wide range of markets and puts barcode labeling within the reach of the smaller business, enabling them to compete better in today’s business environment.
The PC42t is a light-duty printer for general office packing, shipping labeling and distribution centre barcode labeling applications. It delivers affordable barcode labeling solutions that are ideal for bringing about operational efficiencies and productivity improvements in small and medium-sized business environments. Any innovation of this kind, which makes technology accessible to small businesses, is welcome, because it enables the next generation of entrepreneurs to emerge and flourish.
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