Toll Group to build massive parcel sorting centre in Melbourne
Australian freight and express firm Toll Group has announced plans for a A$150m ($141m USD) sorting facility close to Melbourne Airport. The company said the facility will be the largest of its kind in Australia, built to boost Toll’s parcel delivery capabilities.
Toll Group has gained a A$100m ($94m USD) investment from Melbourne Airport to support the project, which should see the new facility operational by the end of 2015.
Brian Kruger, the Toll Group managing director, said the 71,000 square metre facility will expand the company’s dedicated e-commerce parcel delivery service, Toll Consumer Delivery, to take better advantage of the online shopping boom.
He said the facility will triple Toll Group’s current parcel sorting capacity in the Melbourne area to 35,000 parcels per hour.
The new facility will triple Toll Group’s parcel sorting capacity in the Melbourne area
“Given the growth we’re seeing in online retail, it is important we continue to improve our already-extensive national network to make it second to none,” Kruger said.
The facility is planned for a 20-hectare site in Tullamarine, offering immediate access to the airport and key transport links.
About 500 employees will be based at the facility, with staff expected to be relocated from existing sites in Altona and Dandenong.
Toll Consumer Delivery
Toll Group, which made A$4.5bn in revenue in the calendar year 2013, is already nearing completion on what it described last year as Australia’s largest parcel sorting facility, a A$170m ($160m USD) centre stretching to 53,305 square metres, in western Sydney.
The company set its sights on a bigger slice of the e-commerce parcels market in 2012, when its share of the market was around 6%, compared to Australia Post’s believed 60% share.
Toll Consumer Delivery has since established a network of parcel shops in association with the Victorian Newsagents Association, and has been coordinating a network of automated parcel locker terminals using technology from Australian firm TZ.
