TNT Express building its largest “Super Hub” by Melbourne Airport

TNT Express has broken ground on what it says will be the largest hub facility in its global network, at a location close to Melbourne Airport, Australia.
The new “Super Hub” under construction at Tullamarine will be 38,000 square metres (409,000 sq ft) in size, occupying nearly a third of the 121,000 sq m (1.3m sq ft) site.

The purpose-built facility is due for completion in July 2015, to open in September as the company’s head office in the state of Victoria, and a hub for TNT depots in Victoria and Tasmania.

With “state-of-the-art” sorting technology, the facility is expected to have the capacity to process 18,500 parcels an hour, a 60% upgrade on TNT’s current capacity in Melbourne.

Rod Barnes, the TNT Australia regional director, said the current facility at Laverton has “all but reached capacity”, offering limited growth potential.

“With continued growth in demand we knew we wouldn’t be able to maintain the high level of service our customers expect without making this investment,” he said.

“This brought about a step-change in thinking about how a facility should be set up to serve our customers’ changing needs, brought about by the growth in e-commerce and a shift to lighter weight, higher volume consignments.”

Barnes said the Tullamarine facility should meet TNT’s projected needs for “at least” the next 15 years.

Current TNT depots at Tullamarine, Laverton North and Campbellfield will be consolidated into the new Super Hub by October 2015.

TNT Express is also setting up new Super Hubs in Sydney and Brisbane, which should also be completed during 2015.

Barnes said boosting network capacity would allow TNT to provide better domestic and global express freight services in growth sectors like healthcare, high value manufacturing, government, defence, IT and technology.