Editor Allan Leibowitz comments on the news of the week

A topic we're hearing more about these days is remote operation of materials handling equipment. The notion of an operator "driving" a forklift from a computer on the other side of the world is no longer science fiction. This was reinforced this week by the partnership between mainstream materials handling manufacturer Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas and Phantom Auto, a leading provider of interoperable remote operation software. Under the agreement, Phantom's technology will be added to UniCarriers and Mitsubishi forklifts to enable their remote operation. And we're seeing more deals of this type, with a number of different models now in operation in various applications in different countries. It's a trend we'll no doubt see expanding as long as labour shortages remain a challenge in various markets.