Self-Driving Forklift Trucks in International Growth

Optimism is Glowing at Danish Company Global AGV

With a growth of around 50 percent this year alone and the prospect of soon having sold the first 1.000 self-driving forklift trucks globally, optimism is glowing at Global AGV. The company, based on the island of Mors, has just entered its tenth year with expectations of continued growth.

“We have no doubt that the future is bright. The past 12 months have been the best ever. At the same time, our pipeline is growing explosively, both with Danish and international customers. We're being flooded with calls from machine integrators who want to distribute our self-driving forklift truck worldwide,” says Majbritt Svane, Sales Manager at Global AGV. She continues:

“I’m convinced we’re standing at the foot of a massive growth mountain. Right now, the biggest challenge for our customers is the lack of available labor. They need to become more efficient. And they need to eliminate monotonous, repetitive tasks so they can present a strong ESG report. Our self-driving forklift truck supports them in all three areas.”

Hard Not to Make Money

Global AGV is part of the BILA Group, whose CEO, Jan B. Sørensen, came up with the clever idea ten years ago to replace forklift drivers - who were driving the same routes over and over - with advanced software. Now the truck drives itself, moving towers of pallets from point A to point B, all the way to the truck loading ramp. This eliminates monotonous work for employees, who can be reassigned to more engaging tasks, while an AGV - Automated Guided Vehicle - handles the fixed and repetitive routes.

“This little smart machine brings so much value to our customers that it’s almost impossible not to make money from it. It’s essentially a free investment - otherwise, we don’t even allow the purchase. There are many cases where the AGV pays for itself in under a year. If, for example, it frees up two employees who can be reassigned to other tasks, that immediately boosts productivity,” explains Majbritt Svane.

Add New Routes Yourself

Global AGV doesn’t just sell self-driving forklift trucks over the counter - they analyze and optimize the entire production flow of a company. Afterward, the new owners are invited to a mandatory course on how to program the truck themselves. This means they don’t need to hire expensive consultants every time a route needs to be changed or added. The truck’s route plan can easily be expanded as the company scales up or the layout of the production hall changes.

“Programming the AGV is no harder than setting up a robotic lawnmower. Most people learn it quickly. Flexibility is one of the things our customers appreciate the most. Their only complaint is usually that they wish they had gotten the AGV much earlier,”

Majbritt Svane, Sales Manager at Global AGV

Easy Pallet Moving

Global AGV was developed around the same time as autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). However, according to Majbritt Svane, the two types of autonomous vehicles are not competitors. In fact, each offers distinct advantages and they complement each other:

“An AGV can take over a forklift’s tasks one-to-one. It handles all the simple, repetitive pallet moves where there’s high volume. A mobile robot has other advantages. I think the two systems work very well together - especially in a time where skilled labor is in short supply and production must constantly be optimized. In that situation, it just needs to be easy to move pallets. We're confident the potential is so great that we’re aiming to become the global leader in self-driving forklift trucks in the future.”