Yodel has partnered with specialist sortation company Hexapole to install a new Small Parcel Sorter at its Shaw Sortation Centre in Oldham. Yodel state that the implementation of the new system will help its sortation centre to meet the increased demand of online retail.
Hexapole has previously worked with Yodel and supplied the business with the first Small Parcel Sorter on site at the Hatfield sort centre. As the number of parcels flowing through the system kept growing, Yodel decided to install a second Small Parcel Sorter at its Shaw centre to help cope with the increased volume. This was delivered through a refurbishment and reinstallation effort using a unit originally installed in a third-party premise in Switzerland. Hexapole adapted and refined the sorter at its base in the Netherlands to meet Yodel’s specifications and was then transported and installed in Shaw.
Bas Bloemink, Managing Director at Hexapole commented, “At the Hatfield Distribution Centre, our sorting machine and software control have been used for more than 20 years. It is fantastic that Yodel has chosen to work with Hexapole to install a second SPS for their national distribution centre in Shaw. Our sorting system enables the company to manage all kinds of mixed flows of small and larger parcels.”
The new operation in Shaw sorts parcels into plastic sacks and when full, they are sealed, labelled and transported manually and directly to the dispatch door. This has eliminated placing any additional requirements for sortation capacity on the main sorter. Sacks can hold four times the quantity of parcels compared to the tote. Containerised parcels can be processed and tracked as a single unit. Yodel state this substantially increases efficiency and reduces the requirement for manual processes such as individual scanning.
Sustainability has been shown to be an added benefit as the sacks used in operations are fully recyclable and remain within the Yodel network. All empty sacks can be collected at the Service Centres and returned to the sorts for onward recycling.
