Gatik Bags Autonomous Trucking Pilot With Pitney Bowes

August 31, 2022

Gatik started a multi-year commercial agreement with Pitney Bowes, a global shipping and mailing company that provides technology, logistics, and financial services to more than 90 percent of the Fortune 500. Under the agreement, Gatik will integrate its class 6 autonomous box trucks into the Pitney Bowes ecommerce logistics network in the Dallas, Texas market beginning in Q1, 2023.

Gatik’s autonomous fleet, purpose built for the middle mile, will establish a continuous, operational loop across the Pitney Bowes ecommerce logistics network in Dallas, making multiple deliveries per day with speed and efficiency.

“Our partnership with Pitney Bowes reinforces the intense demand we are seeing for autonomous trucks that can operate within urban and semi-urban environments,” said Gautam Narang, CEO and co-founder, Gatik. “We’re excited to help Pitney Bowes accelerate the transformation of their supply chain by establishing a safe, secure and hyper-responsive autonomous delivery service in the greater-Dallas area.”

“Our partnership with Gatik promotes growth and accelerates the modernization and expansion of our network with technology solutions that are redefining ecommerce logistics,” said Stephanie Cannon, SVP, Head of Global Platform and Network, Pitney Bowes. “Gatik’s flexible and responsive logistics network enables us to tailor our Designed Delivery services to provide shippers with unmatched solutions. Pitney Bowes and Gatik’s innovative strategies align to remove cost and complexity from ecommerce logistics to better serve our clients.”

The deployment aims to establish a more responsive and flexible logistics network for Pitney Bowes by delivering excellent service levels and reliability, improving speed of deliveries, and providing end-to-end visibility while lowering transportation costs.

During the initial phase, a safety operator will occupy the autonomous vehicles to monitor performance. Data collected from each delivery will be used to improve network design and identify additional opportunities for cost savings and service improvements as Pitney Bowes looks to integrate autonomous vehicles across its national ecommerce logistics network.

The unique advantages of deploying Gatik’s autonomous middle mile solution will help to future-proof logistics operations, increase asset utilization, and support a shift to a more direct, high-frequency transportation network. The result is a more efficient network and faster, more reliable service for Pitney Bowes clients.For the third-straight quarter, robot sales in North America hit a record high, driven by a resurgence in sales to automotive companies and an ongoing need to manage increasing demand to automate logistics for e-commerce. According to the Association for Advancing Automation, of the 12,305 robots sold in Q2 2022, 59% of the orders came from the automotive industry with the remaining orders from non-automotive companies largely in the food & consumer goods industry, which saw a 13% increase in unit orders over the same period, April through June, in 2021.