DPD Germany to extend HQ site into major hub

Parcel delivery company DPD Germany has announced plans to expand and modernise the hub at its corporate headquarters in Aschaffenburg, northwest Bavaria. DPD, part of La Poste’s GeoPost Group, is to invest EUR 40m in the programme, which is set to begin this summer and proceed in phases through to mid-2014.

The initial phase, to be completed at the end of this year, will see a second sorting hall added next to the existing hub facility, providing 102 more linehaul bays and 25 more unloading bays.

A second step will see sorting and handling systems in the existing hub facility replaced by a more modern, fully-automatic system.

DPD Germany said a third sorting hall is also to be built at a later stage, adding 136 linehaul bays and 30 unloading bays.

Chief executive Arnold Schroven said the project was a long-term commitment to the Aschaffenburg location in central Germany.

He said the project will be one of the biggest ever in DPD’s international network, with the new parcel distribution centre giving the hub an “enormous” performance capacity. The new installation will be able to sort 20,000 parcels an hour, while the site will gain additional loading bays to increase the number of long-distance domestic and international linehaul operations.

Consolidation

In the long-term, the company’s depot in the centre of Aschaffenburg will be consolidated into the expanded hub, as it is turned into a major link in the international DPD network. About 30 staff are based at the 27,000 square metre depot at present, handling 50,000 parcels a day.

The Aschaffenburg hub currently has 200 staff processing up to 230,000 parcels a day. It will have its existing 48,000 square metre site area expanded to 82,000 square metres.

Schroven said: “Bringing these two operational locations in the long term to form one highly modern sorting and distribution centre will concentrate our capacities and ensure that we will be in a position to deal with major increases in parcel volumes in future, while continuing to offer our customers the high-quality DPD shipping services they are used to.”

The new halls will use environmental technology to reduce its impacts, with low-carbon lighting, heating and air conditioning systems, solar-powered water heating systems and solar power systems.

Andreas Butzer, who is leading the new building project, said care would be taken to use renewable raw materials including wooden beams instead of concrete and recyclable steel.

“Our new buildings and the extension of our existing facilities will offer worthwhile benefits to the local economy in the form of increased transport capacities, higher sorting volumes and even faster delivery times,” said Butzer.

“Even today 95% of all parcels shipped within a radius of 550km are already delivered within 24 hours.”