UPS is investing an estimated $300m to triple the size of its Louisville Centennial package facility in the US to 838,000 sq ft, and nearly double current sorting capacity to 85,000 packages per hour. In addition, the project will create a mix of 300 new full and part-time jobs.
The Centennial hub, constructed in 2007 during UPS’s 100th anniversary year, provides pickup and delivery operations for customers in Louisville and surrounding counties and serves as a transfer point for trailers moving to destinations beyond Kentucky. With its proximity to UPS Worldport air hub at Louisville International Airport, it also supports end-of-runway express service by allowing packages to be inserted into the Worldport air operations as late as 1:30 a.m.
The expansion will take place in three phases and continue through 2020. In addition to increasing the building’s footprint, the project will modernize the hub’s conveyor technology, enhancing the flow of packages through the building, and increasing accuracy during sorting. The automated conveyors will move packages through the sorting process while capturing data used to route packages to the proper location for loading on outbound vehicles. The expansion of enhanced technology in the facility will increase capacity to 85,000 packages per hour (up from 40,000 per hour), improving both reliability and quality of service provided to UPS customers.
Six-sided decode tunnels will replace traditional scanning to capture package information from address labels. Label applicators will place “smart labels” on packages for local delivery, providing UPS loaders faster instruction of a package’s proper staging location in a UPS vehicle prior to transport. This will improve accuracy and package integrity, while minimizing time in transit for UPS customers.
Source: UPS
