Colruyt plans to optimise dock operations

Retail logistics at scale

square metres. From these hubs, food and non-food goods are supplied daily to stores across Belgium and Luxembourg. The company also runs its own transport operations and selected production activities, such as meat and bakery lines. As an everyday low-price retailer, Colruyt focuses strongly on process efficiency and cost control. “We have been investing in innovation and R&D for many years to enable to control our costs,” explains Koen De Vos, Director Supply Chain at Colruyt Group. This focus shapes the design of the entire supply chain, from picking strategies to outbound transport.
At the same time, retail logistics remains highly labour intensive. High throughput, dense storage areas and a large number of manual handling tasks define daily operations. This makes recruitment and workforce planning increasingly challenging. “One of the main challenges I see for the future is the availability of labour capacity,” De Vos says. Automation is therefore not a replacement strategy, but a way to support employees and stabilise operations.

The dock as bottleneck

Unlike other warehouse processes, dock operations are highly dynamic. Trailer types vary, pallets are not always perfectly positioned, and operators work in close proximity. Traditional, stationary automation solutions for this area have existed for years, but many are based on fixed installations.
“For us, these technologies were innovative but not necessarily adapted to our dense and variable supply chain environment,” explains De Vos. The need for additional infrastructure, such as conveyor systems or permanently installed loading devices, conflicted with Colruyt’s requirement for flexibility. Manual forklift trucks therefore remained the standard solution at the docks – reliable, but dependent on labour availability and subject to ergonomic and safety constraints.

A step-by-step automation strategy

Colruyt’s automation strategy is pragmatic and incremental. Rather than redesigning entire sites, the company looks for solutions that can be integrated into existing layouts and processes. This approach also defines the long-standing cooperation with STILL. “Colruyt Group and STILL have a long-standing relationship, with STILL serving for years as a preferred supplier of traditional forklift trucks,” says De Vos. Around four years ago, the partners decided to extend this cooperation to automation. The initial focus was on autonomous horizontal transport within the warehouse. The long-term ambition, however, was always to automate lorry loading and unloading as well. This ambition has now materialised in the AXL iGo.

The AXL iGo concept

The STILL AXL iGo is an autonomous low lift pallet truck, designed specifically for loading and unloading trailers. Unlike traditional automated loading systems, the AXL iGo does not require fixed safety installations such as cameras or dedicated loading infrastructure. The truck navigates using a combination of 3D Visual SLAM, cameras and LiDAR scanners. This allows it to operate safely inside trailers and in mixed traffic areas at the dock. With a load capacity of 1,500 kilograms and a travel speed of up to 2 m/s (7.2 km/h), the AXL iGo is designed for productive operation. In a typical scenario, two trucks can load 30 pallets into a trailer in around 35 minutes. Precise pallet detection enables the system to handle off-centre loads and deviations in pallet quality, which are common in retail logistics.
From STILL’s perspective, flexibility is the key advantage. “AXL iGo was developed to mimic the actions of an experienced forklift truck operator, but with consistent performance across all shifts,” explains Jasper Van Gool, Project Lead Automated and Integrated Solutions at STILL. “Because it works without fixed infrastructure, customers can introduce automation exactly where it creates value.”

Working safely in dense environments

Safety is often the main concern when introducing automation at the dock. Dock areas are characterised by high traffic density and frequent interaction between people, manual trucks, and vehicles. The AXL iGo uses a 360-degree safety concept with scanners, cameras, visual and acoustic warnings and emergency stop functions.
“Working safely alongside operators is very important to us,” emphasises De Vos. During the proof of concept, the autonomous trucks worked alongside employees without disrupting established workflows. Manual operation remains possible at any time, which increases acceptance and operational resilience.

According to STILL, this coexistence is a core design principle. “Our goal is not to isolate automation, but to integrate it into real logistics environments,” says Van Gool. “The AXL iGo is built to operate reliably where space is limited and processes change.”

Scalable solution

Another factor that influenced Colruyt’s decision was the the AXL iGo’s multifunctional nature. “With just one machine, you can perform horizontal movements as well as loading and unloading,” De Vos explains. This flexibility supports Colruyt’s cost-efficient approach and reduces the need for specialised equipment. Scalability also plays an important role. Additional vehicles can be integrated into the fleet management system via a browser-based UI without major changes to the infrastructure.

Conclusion

The proof of concept with the STILL AXL iGo demonstrates how autonomous lorry loading and unloading can be achieved in a dense, high-throughput retail environment. For Colruyt, this solution addresses several strategic objectives at once: supporting the workforce, improving safety, stabilising processes and maintaining flexibility. 
“First of all, it works efficiently and reliably in dense operations,” says De Vos. “Secondly, it is scalable and can grow alongside our activities, without a significant initial investment.”
For STILL, the project confirms the relevance of hassle-free automation as labour availability becomes a critical factor. Solutions like the AXL iGo offer a practical path to increase the resilience of supply chains.