WATCH: Robots in Wakefield - Launch of new delivery service brings the district into a new age

Groceries will be picked fresh from the Co-op store on Meadow Vale, Outwood, and delivered quickly and conveniently from store to door in minutes.

The service, which will help reduce the number of short journeys made by cars, was offically lauched on Wednesday (May 24) outside the Outwood branch with a ribbon cutting ceremony by Co-op managers and Coun Matthew Morley, Wakefield Councillor for Stanley and Outwood East.

Wakefield Council partnered with Co-op and Starship Technologies, the world’s leading provider of autonomous delivery services, to bring the benefits of autonomous grocery delivery to residents following succes in other areas of the UK.

Customers can order food by downloading the the Starship food delivery app, which is available for download on iOS and Android, and will initially be available to 13,000 residents across more than 6,500 households in the district.

Coun Morley said: “I just think it's going to be really fun experience for people. There's no delivery points from the Co-op at the moment, so it's actually going to create jobs in the area, buying the robots.

"We’re excited that this cutting-edge technology is coming to our district and helping our residents who might find it difficult to get out and about with an affordable and convenient way of doing their food shopping.

"There's been some negativity when they were first announced but there’s always going to be negatitivity, especially for new things.

"I do think this will be an asset to Outwood and Stanley.”

Orders can be made through the Starship food delivery app. Groceries will be picked fresh from the Co-op store on Meadow Vale, Outwood, and delivered quickly and conveniently from store to door in minutes.

Through the app, customers can choose from a wide range of grocery items, schedule their delivery, then drop a pin where they want it to be sent.

Andrew Curtis, UK operations manager at Starship Technologies, said: “We are delighted to officially launch our service in Wakefield and provide local residents with the opportunity to have their groceries delivered by our fleet of battery powered robots.

"We all want cleaner air to breathe, and our robots make short car journeys to the supermarket a thing of the past.”

The launch in Wakefield continues the expansion of autonomous robot deliveries, and follows recent roll-outs in areas of Leeds and Greater Manchester, where Starship’s robots are already a familiar and popular sight, along with several other locations across the UK

However, the idea of robots working within the district has been opposed before.

In 2018, ex-Wakefield Council leader, Peter Box, promised to pursue a “unique” deal for the area as Wakefield residents were predicted to lose jobs to robots.

This followed a report by a respected think tank in 2018, which predicted that the district could lose 45,000 jobs - nearly a third of its entire workforce - by 2030.

Speaking at a council meeting, ex-councillor Box said he would focus on the prospect of the district losing jobs to technology after a Yorkshire region-wide devolution was scrapped.

He said: “I’ve asked officer colleagues to start working on a city deal for Wakefield. That I believe should be unique to Wakefield and would focus on robotics, because that as we all know will pose a particular problem for Wakefield."

Technology continues to change and evolve. In the past five years, there has been a prominent rise in technological advances with the development of AI sites such as ChatGPT and announcements of robots fulfilling “human” jobs.

It seems that the long-term vision foresees a radically new robotic technology, where robots can be fit for purpose without the need for direct human oversight, ultimately removing the need for a human.

Recently, the rise of automation and robotics hit employment in warehouses and the logistics industry particularly hard, with new machines replacing workers.

In West Yorkshire, council chiefs were warned not to allow robots to staff its customer service centres at the expense of human beings.

Conservative Billy Flynn, a member of Leeds City Council, said last year he was “terrified” by the prospect of automated webchats being used to answer queries from the public.

In the meeting, which took place in September 2022, he said: “What terrifies me about this mention of robots, is that by definition, it is a robot.

“There’s nothing more annoying than when you try to live chat and some t***pot called ‘Mickey’ or ‘Arthur’ comes on and hasn’t got a clue what you’re talking about.”

The introduction of delivery robots has had a mixed reaction from the public, with one shopper calling the new service “ridiculous” and that it will “put hard working people out off jobs”.

One local delivery driver said: “I actually do this as a job they don’t even deliver to your door but they do get close so you will have to leave your house to come out and get your shopping.

“It’s not a bad idea for short distances but I’m not worried that they will overtake us in the job market.”

Despite the mixed response, Starship Technologies’ novelty delivery robots are here to stay.

Chris Conway, eCommerce director at Co-op, said: “We are committed to exploring new and innovative ways to increase access to our products and services, and delighted to be able to roll-out our autonomous robot deliveries to provide additional online flexibility and choice in Wakefield.”