Happy Hump Day, dear readers!
It’s no secret that your humble blogger is a big fan of automation, and of robotics replacing human labor – less workers being injured, costs shrinking, and a gradual evolution to a Jetsons-style life where we can all live happy and healthy lives.
It all began when Ug, the caveman manager of a small quarry in pre-historic Western France was faced with a Union uprising by his caveman employees. Demanding higher wages and more reasonable hours, Ug discovered that he could simply replace some of his workers by issuing the remaining workers better tools – more force done with every blow required fewer blows overall, thus necessitating fewer workers.
Well, since that time, Ug and his descendants have yearned for minimizing the need for human labor, and maximizing quality of life with minimal costs.
We’re getting there.
In London, some couriers are being replaced with “ground drones” that use GPS and maneuvering technology to deliver parcels in the city. Anyone who has had the pleasure of being knocked over by a bike courier in San Francisco, followed by the charming “you’re number 1!” emanating from the courier’s middle finger, will be pleased not to have to deal with this anymore as cute, Star-Wars like drones deliver the same parcels with more reliability and none of the attitude.
A company in Australia, a Dominos licensee, is taking the same approach to delivering Pizza, taking the tipping, cost, and delay of a pizza delivery out of the equation. A fleet of small drones can now stand by to delivery your pizza directly (instead of you being a stop along the way) and probably letting you track your delivery too.
Bear in mind, dear readers, this is all happening at a break-neck pace. Back in your humble blogger’s day, technology moved slowly, and a lot of it was focused at making work done by humans safer, rather than replacing them altogether.
The bottom line for the workers’ compensation community is, and continues to be, that in our lifetimes we will see a tremendous amount of jobs replaced, which means fewer work-related injuries and, thus, fewer workers’ comp. claims. As a result, our industry may see some shrinkage in the years to come.
Now, who wants some pizza?