Having worked in a fulfilment centre before university, Elliot Walker, one of Prologis UK’s interns within the Capital Deployment and Leasing team, discusses how his time with us has changed his perception of the industrial and logistics (I&L) sector so far. 

My first month with Prologis has so far been incredibly rewarding and, at times, eye-opening. I’ve gained invaluable hands-on experience working side-by-side with industry leaders. While working at Prologis was always going to be an educational experience, I didn’t realise just how far the logistics industry had evolved. 

Before now, my only experience of the logistics sector was as a warehouse operative back in 2020, before leaving the position to earn my bachelor’s degree in real estate at Nottingham Trent University. My experience at the time was positive but very much how you may have expected life as part of a workforce in the logistics industry to be. Prologis has changed my perception entirely. 

Since joining the team, I’ve been fortunate enough to experience the fast-paced and evolving nature of the I&L industry first-hand. At a visit to Prologis Park Dunstable, I have been able to witness some of the market’s leading innovations. 

One of the most eye-opening experiences at the Park was the sheer number of robots that are used on site. While AI has been used in the industry for around a decade, the advancements in recent years have opened up a number of opportunities. Progression in technology will continue to provide the human workforce with more opportunities to develop and create more efficient customer operations and new job roles, such as Reliability and Maintenance Engineering (RME) teams, who are responsible for the upkeep of the technology. As the role of AI and robotics continues to evolve, the number of career opportunities will certainly continue to grow with it.

Conversations, both within Prologis and its customers, have highlighted the incredibly important need to continually boost efficiency within distribution centres as consumer demands continue to rise. For instance, from Prologis Park Dunstable DC2 there are around 130,000 items that are processed on a daily basis, which has increased[TO1]  previously to almost half a million items during the Christmas period; being able to ensure staff members are available and in more adaptable roles to help react to peaks in trading is a vital part of modern-day logistics. 

From learning about strategic land allocation and investment to working with marketing and customer excellence teams, my experience with Prologis has helped me to understand why 66 per cent of employees surveyed by Prologis love their jobs. 

As I progress through my internship, I hope to be able to get more of a flavour of the wide variety of roles available within the industry and learn more about the ways in which it is progressing. 

If you’d like to find out more about the Prologis Internship Programme, click the link or get in touch.