GLS expands French handling capacity with new sorting equipment

GLS is expanding capacity at its Paris hub to cope with rising volumes and will gradually introduce new sorting technology at its other locations in France. The value of the investment was not disclosed.

The European parcels operator will install a new modular sorting line at its hub in Fleury-Mérogis, in the greater Paris area in November, increasing its handling capacity from 4,000 to 8,000 parcels per hour.

In the future, all sites in the French network will also be equipped with the new system, GLS France announced. The move follows an initial test phase at the Toulouse depot.

GLS said that with the new technology it is taking a further step in the automation of production and industrialization of processes. It decided to develop the new sorting line to improve its parcel sorting and loading capabilities following the introduction of new speed limits on trucks in France, and in response to a constant increase in its volumes.

The new production tools are capable of sorting, loading and managing parcels of all sizes, whether on pallets, in rolls or as bulk packages. The new sorting line offers three main advantages:
– Modularity: every elements in the chain can be assembled independently of the others, which allows the line and its capacities to be extended according to the workload.
– Flexibility: central computer control ensures automatic adaptation of the speed of each section automatically and individually, according to the flows of parcels.
– Adaptability: the modularity of the chain ensures full flexibility of the installation, as required according to the configuration of the site.

The fully automated system is managed by a central computer system that controls and sets up all the modules. A “smart” system is used for scanning the 2D barcode on the GLS label. Then the system routes the parcels automatically towards the various conveyor belts, according to the place of delivery. The path to be followed by each parcel at the hub is thus determined by the address of the recipient, the delivery period and the associated services, as selected by the customer.

Higher quality and security are ensured by using the latest parcel scanning technologies for real-time control at each stage in the routing process. Customers can track and trace items via the GLS website.