Freightmasters' manual unloading practices were causing many a sore back among workers. Furthermore, the process was time consuming, and worker turnover was high.

The $60 million freight handling services company has changed all that at its Minneapolis consolidation center. Workers no longer use short, non-powered conveyor systems to unload boxes from trucks. They no longer hand sort boxes and carry them to pallets for stacking prior to re-shipment.

Now, powered conveyors assist unloading at three docks, eliminating the strenuous manual labor of old. Cartons are manually placed on conveyors that carry them to a PC-equipped scanning station that won't allow them to move further unless their bar code is scanned. From there, cartons move on to sorting stations where pallets wait to be built and packed onto outgoing trucks. Workers no longer carry a carton more than 30 feet.

But automating the sorting process created new challenges. Freightmasters' customers have very different preferences regarding bar codes and label placement. As a result, finding flexible bar code scanning guns became essential to the operation. Special software solved the problem. It allows operators to set the system to accept only bar codes matching those used by a particular customer.