FedEx and Amazon are accelerating the deployment of robotic arms in their logistics networks to improve operational efficiency and reduce the high-intensity physical labor burden on employees.

On July 30, FedEx announced in a press release that it has deployed Dexterity's dual-armed Mech trailer loading system at its Hagerstown hub in Maryland. The system is driven by Dexterity's Foresight model, which makes real-time decisions during autonomous loading to optimize package placement.

FedEx loads tens of thousands of trailers daily across its U.S. network. The press release noted that trailer loading has historically been difficult to automate and is one of the "most physically demanding and challenging workflows" in package logistics, requiring employees to have strength, endurance, and real-time problem-solving skills.

Dexterity founder and CEO Samir Menon said in the press release: "Hagerstown is a significant milestone, proving how physical AI can operate reliably in high-throughput logistics environments, providing a blueprint for network expansion."

FedEx has been testing automated trailer loading technology with Dexterity for years and plans to further scale it in the future. Kawal Preet, executive vice president of planning, engineering, and transformation, said at the 2026 Investor Day in February that FedEx plans to deploy automated trailer unloading and loading operations at thousands of dock doors across more than 20 hubs in the U.S. over the next few years.

Meanwhile, Amazon Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said on a July 30 earnings call that Amazon plans to more than double its number of robotic arms in 2026 to drive automation technology expansion and improve fulfillment network efficiency.

The logistics giant has deployed over 1 million robots in its network since 2012. The robotic arms it uses include Cardinal (for lifting packages and placing them into carts) and Sparrow (for moving products from containers to totes before packaging). Both technologies leverage artificial intelligence and computer vision.

Aaron Prather, director of market intelligence at the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), said in an email to Supply Chain Dive that the massive expansion of Amazon's robot fleet "could not only impact its own operations, but also trends across the automation industry." Prather noted: "Recently, the non-automotive sector has surpassed the automotive sector as the largest buyer of industrial robots. Companies like Amazon and FedEx are driving this shift through the continued deployment of automation equipment across their extensive logistics and fulfillment networks."

Other logistics giants are also adopting robotic arm technology to enhance automation. In 2023, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) installed a package robot sorting system at a distribution center in Kansas, which uses robotic arms to unload pallets, according to a report released Monday by the agency's Office of Inspector General.

Last year, DHL announced an agreement to deploy more than 1,000 additional Boston Dynamics Stretch robots.