Toyota Material Handling UK (TMHUK) says the increase in National Insurance (NI) employer contributions announced in the UK Government’s October 2024 Budget, has resulted in a “surge in enquiries” for its automated and robotic warehouse solutions from companies intent on not increasing their wages overheads.

The increase, from 13.8% to 15%, combined with a lower threshold at which the contributions begin, has “added considerably to the wage bill of most companies”, Toyota states.

TMHUK says industry estimates put the NI change in the region of GBP800 (USD994) annually for each forklift driver employed on an annual average salary of GBP23,400 (USD29,080), per operator as an additional cost companies need to bear.

Toyota’s head of business development Paul Freeman says the extra cost is a problem companies already struggling to manage staff shortages, do not need.

“With the prevailing shortage of warehouse workers already driving wage competition, interest in automated systems was high before the budget,” Freeman adds.

“But since the increase in NI costs announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer the number of ‘serious’ requests we’ve been getting for information about automation and robotics has increased significantly.

“By effectively making it more difficult and costly to recruit warehouse personnel, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has accelerated the trend for companies in all sectors to introduce automated and robotic solutions as a way of mitigating the impact of the high cost of labour on operating overheads.”

Freeman says while the move to automation has been well underway for many companies for some time, the NI increase has “rapidly increased” that pace of change.

Forkliftaction News contacted the Chancellor of the Exchequer for comment about Toyota’s claims but had received no response at time publication.