Contoro Robotics and States Logistics are celebrating one year of successful robotic trailer unloading at States Logistics’ Buena Park, CA facility, marking a full year of safer workflows, consistent productivity, and continuous improvement inside one of the toughest areas of warehouse operations.
Over the past twelve months, Contoro’s autonomous unloading robot, known as Dock Duck, has unloaded more than 450 floor-loaded, non-palletized trailers. The system drives into the trailer, grips boxes using its patented DuoGrasp “beak,” and places those cases onto its conveyance system, allowing warehouse teams to stay outside the trailer in safer, more ergonomic environment.
This year, the deployment expanded to include a full palletization component, enabling freight to be unloaded and palletized without requiring manual labor. With support from Contoro’s remote intervention tools and continuous learning system, throughput has improved 20% every six months, demonstrating how Contoro’s AdaptAI and InteleOp features evolve, learn, and improve.
“Partnering with Contoro to automate the task of offloading trailers continues to help us with keeping our team safe and productive. We are a premier 3PL provider and leverage automation in as many departments as possible within our operations. Automating the most challenging task of offloading floor-loaded trailers has been well received by our team, and we are planning to add additional Ducks to continue our automation vision while providing world-class service to our customers.” said Jesse Sevilla, Director of Sales and Operations States Logistics.
States Logistics operates more than 5.5 million square feet of warehousing across California and Arizona and remains a leader in forward-thinking automation adoption. Buena Park is a strong “nesting ground” for Dock Duck, a real-world environment where the robot continues provide benefits to labor efficiency, productivity, and throughput.
“Working with States is truly a collaborative experience,” said Dr. Youngmok Yun (Mok), CEO of Contoro Robotics. “They leverage technology to help tackle inflation, sustainability costs, and labor shortages, and we are proud to assist them in offloading their trailers with our robot. They are customer- and employee-centric and take a proactive approach with technology to remain on the cutting edge of automation adoption.”
With proven results, rising throughput, and strong operator acceptance, the partnership is poised to expand the flock in 2026. States Logistics and Contoro are now evaluating opportunities to scale Dock Duck across additional sites, continuing the migration toward safer, more efficient inbound operations.
