Halfway point in construction of DHL hub
The halfway point at one of Europe’s biggest construction sites: Construction work on DHL’s European hub begun at the start of 2006 is progressing well and is right on schedule. Klaus Zumwinkel, the Chairman of the Board of Management at Deutsche Post World Net, briefed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, German Transportation Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee and Saxony Premier Georg Milbradt on the project’s progress during an on-site visit on Tuesday and celebrated “halftime” with representatives from politics, business, arts, culture and media as well as employees.
“The Leipzig/Halle hub will be a vital element within our company. Along with Hong Kong in Asia und Wilmington in the United States, it will be one of the three most important transfer locations in DHL’s global network,” Zumwinkel said. DHL plans to create 3,500 jobs by 2012. Experience has shown that other companies and service providers will then create an additional 7,000 jobs in the region as the result of such a project. Zumwinkel said: “By opening this important location to our Group and investing around EUR300 million, we are taking an important step to bolster the country’s new states and Germany as a business location.”
Personnel and technology
Nearly 40,000 people have applied for jobs at the DHL hub. A total of 330 new workers have already been hired, and 200 of them are undergoing training. A total of 400 DHL employees are already working at the evolving hub, whose structural work is just about finished. The hub will consist of a 48,000 square-meter distribution center and an approximately 23,000 square-meter hangar. Installation of the operational equipment is scheduled to begin soon. Costing more than EUR70 million, the Dutch company Vanderlande will install the latest sorting technology in the months ahead.
The sorting system has two special features: its functionality and its size. Four superimposed sorting systems will run through the 400-meter-long shipping center. This facility will be the largest of its kind in Germany, automatically sorting up to 60,000 shipments every hour. A multistep bidding procedure involving nearly 50 bidders preceded the investment decision.
Other flight destinations: Copenhagen and Bergamo
As construction proceeds, DHL is once again expanding its flight operations at the Leipzig/Halle airport. The current air routes to and from Brussels, Cologne/Bonn, Warsaw, Kattowitz, Danzig, Nuremberg, Ostrau, Prague in the Czech Republic and East Midlands in England were expanded on October 9, 2006, to include Kiev. Copenhagen and Bergamo, a city in northern Italy, will be added as shipping airports on October 30, 2006. Afterward, a total of 12 DHL planes will use the central German airport Monday through Friday.
In addition to turboprop aircraft, DHL relies heavily on Boeing 757 freighters. The Boeing 757 is 77 percent quieter than its predecessor, uses 20 percent less fuel per ton and strongly reduces CO2 emissions. At the end of October, 150 tons of freight will be handled each day.
