Within 15 years technology will be destroying jobs more rapidly than people can be retrained to fill new roles, the Sheds & Logistics Development Conference has heard.

Daniel Hulme, Chief Executive Officer of Artificial Intelligence consultancy Satalia, predicted to delegates at the Built Environment Networking event that technology will continue to free more people from existing tasks over the next decade but at a price. [emaillocker id=”71749″]

He said: “The concern is that with the constant impulse to drive more and more efficiency, technology will replace old jobs. There is a concept of economic singularity: the point at which you remove jobs and people can’t retrain fast enough to get new jobs. The prediction is that we will reach this turning point in the next 15 years and I don’t think our economies are set up for that.”

Rachel Price, a Business Development Manager at Siemens, said that the multinational is working on plans that will deliver a fully automated logistics warehouse within next 12 to 18 months.

Referring to work that the company is carrying out with a post and parcel carrier, which involves the installation of AI and sensors throughout the plant’s conveyor belts and machines, she said: “Connecting all the machines will give access to real time data so you won’t need presence of an engineer on site or even potentially operators. The logistics industry is so competitive, and margins are so tight that you are almost forced down this road.”

But while Hulme expressed concerns about a looming scarcity of jobs, this is currently not a headache in the logistics sector, said Will Cooper, Head of Development Project Management at Savills.

He said that as labour becomes scarcer and more expensive, there will be more appetite within the sector to invest in robotics.

And the increasingly skilled nature of the logistics workforce is pushing occupiers and developers to offer higher quality warehouse working environments, he said: “People working in warehouses are a lot more skilled than they were in the past. It’s not a load of old boys in brown coats, they are very highly skilled and they’ve got IT degrees.

“The competition for employment is with Google at King’s Cross. Unless you are going to pay them a hell of a lot more it’s got to be an attractive place to work. You’re never going to make an industrial unit on the side of the M25 as attractive a place as an office in central London but there are things you can do to make the office a more attractive and a nicer place to work, “ Cooper said, adding that earmarking green space for planters or sustainable urban drainage schemes could provide logistics workers with a more attractive lunchtime vista than a service yard.

But the “biggest hurdle” to introducing new technology is the slow-moving pace of the planning process, he said: “Unless there is a real step change in the process these sorts of innovations won’t take off.”

And Cooper agreed with earlier speakers during the day that the sector is hampered by constraints on the electricity network.

“Occupiers’ electricity requirements are going up and the network is not getting better. Onsite generation whether renewable or gas generation is becoming absolutely vital,” he said adding that the grid is full to capacity on the feed-in side.

And even though his clients are ‘very busy’, Cooper said Brexit is a headache with many contractors examining clauses to help safeguard against EU withdrawal related delays and not being able source particular products.

One developer has ordered 120 dock doors due to concerns that they will not get them in time for their projects.

Another headache for logistics developers is the rising cost of steel cladding, he said: “If the steelwork procurement keeps getting more expensive and longer and we have more issues with cladding people are going to start looking more at different ideas.”

Lucy Hudson, Lead Officer for Freight & Logistics at Transport for the North said that Brexit-related changes in trading patterns could create opportunities for ports like Liverpool with facilities to handle ‘enormous’ container ships if rail infrastructure can be enhanced to achieve better east -west connectivity.

“Northern ports could see opportunities, but the reality is that without the certainty that it’s going to happen business won’t make decisions.” [/emaillocker]