Swiss Post’s Basel logistics centre to make way for train station complex
Swiss Post has announced that its postal building above the track of the SBB train station in Basel will make way for a new urban development complex know as “Nauentor” – and as a consequence all the functions of the Basel logistics centre except for the business customer counters will move to the Härkingen letter sorting centre by mid-2020.
In a statement issued on Monday (28 May), Swiss Post said: “Concentrating these functions at the Härkingen site is a response to the continual decline in letter volumes over recent years and a drop in the capacity utilization of sorting systems. Swiss Post will start the relevant consultation process in mid-June. Final decisions will be made in autumn 2018.”
Swiss Post added: “The realignment of existing letter processing in the Basel area is taking shape with the redesign of the Basel station district and the complete demolition of the ageing Swiss Post building down to its foundations.
” With fewer letters posted and cost pressures mounting, one of Swiss Post’s business tasks is to review and continually improve existing internal processes and realize optimization potential. Only by doing so can Swiss Post continue to offer suitable services at its customary high level of quality. The volume of addressed letters has dropped by an average of 1-2 percent in recent years. Over the past two years, this decline has grown to around 4 percent.
“A study thoroughly examined the situation and processes and concluded that it would make sense to integrate the work at the Basel logistics center into the Härkingen letter center. The required system capacities and floorspace are available at Härkingen.
“If Swiss Post Executive Management definitively decides to integrate the Basel logistics center into the Härkingen letter center located in the neighbouring Canton of Solothurn by autumn of this year, 86 employees (around 71 of whom are full-time) will be affected by the change. Swiss Post would carry out the integration into the Härkingen letter center by 2020 in a socially responsible manner. It intends to provide employees with a reasonable offer.”
Swiss Post said that it envisages cutting around 15 full-time positions – but it expects that these job cuts will occur through “natural staff turnover” and “long-term planning should ensure that compulsory redundancies can be avoided wherever possible”.
