Ed Garsten
24 Apr 2023
This investment signifies a shift in an otherwise labor intensive industry
Warehouse, logistics and shipping companies caught in an acute labor shortage can't find enough people to operate forklifts and yard trucks on-site, so an increasing number are depending on those willing to do so by remote control.
That takes a special technology, and Silicon Valley-based Phantom Auto, which specializes in it, just received a major cash infusion that will help it solve the issue for an increasing number of customers.
InfraBridge, a division of DigitalBridge, a leading infrastructure investment manager, has invested $25 million in Phantom Auto the companies announced early Tuesday. In a case of corporate kismet, InfraBridge is also a major investor in ConGlobal, the largest operator of rail terminals in North America, with one of the largest yard truck fleets in the world with about 700 vehicles.
Phantom is already working with ConGlobal to provide its customers with unmanned yard trucks, and are currently moving live loads, including with one of the largest railroads in the world.
"As ConGlobal continues on its transformation journey, we are focused on supporting enterprise performance through advanced solutions and innovation," said Damian Stanley, managing partner of InfraBridge and chair of the investment committee in a statement. "Phantom Auto strategically aligns with our thesis of digitizing logistics to drive performance and efficiencies and further create value within our portfolio companies.”
“We are excited to partner with InfraBridge, who shares our vision for digitizing logistics; and with ConGlobal, who will help us continue to bring that vision to life with unmanned yard trucks,” said Shai Magzimof, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Phantom Auto in a statement.
In a nutshell, Phantom’s vehicle-agnostic remote operation software enables highly-trained operators to remotely monitor, remotely assist, and remotely operate fleets of unmanned vehicles from thousands of miles away.
That ability makes a large labor pool available because individuals who need the work but don't care to move, don't have to. They can operate the equipment remotely, as long as they have access to a strong internet connection.
As demand grows for more remote yard truck and forklift operators, Phantom Auto co-founder and chief business officer Elliot Katz says that InfraBridge's $25 million will go a long way towards securing the resources needed to fill that demand.
"We're growing our team to deploy more unmanned yard trucks with our partner ConGlobal, and to keep up with the demand for more vehicle deployments from our scaling forklift customers,” said Katz in an interview. “With high demand in both verticals due in part to the labor shortage, we are hiring as rapidly as possible for our deployment team: customer integration engineers, technical project managers, and support engineers."
As part of the deal, ConGlobal CEO Brant Ring will join the Phantom Auto board of directors. He asserts that rather than eliminating jobs, remote operation actually increases employment because more people would be available to take those positions.
“For instance, 50% of our equipment operators have less than a year of experience with us. Our work is outside in all climates. Our work is all day, every day. Our work often requires an extended commute to be onsite,” said Ring.
He went on to point out fewer than than 10% of ConGlobal's frontline operators are female and none of its equipment operators are people with physical disabilities so Phantom’s technology “allows us to expand our reach into a broader, more diverse pool of employees that we don’t have access to today.”
As further evidence of its growth and demand for remote equipment operators Phantom Auto is now working with one-third of the top 12 third-party logistics (3PL) companies in North America, according to Katz. 3PL's are companies that handle logistics for others.
The question then comes up, why not simply use autonomous yard trucks and forklifts to further defray the labor shortfall.
Phantom Auto's Elliot Katz explains human involvement, even from great distances is a key factor in smooth and safe operation.
“Remotely operated vehicles are powered by a combination of remote operation software and the human brain. We are keeping the human in the loop by design, rather than attempting to fully replace humans with autonomy that is not capable of handling the full driving task,” said Katz. “By deploying technology that is a co-pilot and force multiplier for humans — who have been operating vehicles for as long as vehicles have existed — we have a technological solve for the labor shortage that is viable today, not decades from now." This article originally appeard in Forbes. Read the full article here: