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BEUMER successfully installed sorting and distribution equipment for DPD

The sorting equipment is designed so that packages leave the building three to seven minutes after entering it.Photo by BEUMER Group GmbH & Co. KG

The sorting equipment is designed so that packages leave the building three to seven minutes after entering it.
Photo by BEUMER Group GmbH & Co. KG

The international parcel and express service provider DPD has opened a new superhub in Hinckley in the southwest of Leicestershire, England. The purpose is to meet the increasing demand for its services and be prepared for future growth. The new distribution center is able to handle up to 720,000 parcels a day. To achieve this capacity, the company installed innovative sorting, distribution and conveyor equipment from the BEUMER Group over a length of three kilometers.

The new Hub 4 of the DPD Group UK just recently went into operation. BEUMER delivered and installed three BS 25 ET parcel sorters with a total length of 2,700 meters. It also installed two BS 7 BT sorters totaling 270 meters in length for small items, plus feed-in units with induction lines, end-point conveyors and two carousel systems for goods that cannot be put on conveyors. Cameras and scanners with downstream OCR and video coding reduce the number of no-reads on the sorters to a minimum. In order to optimally direct material flows, BEUMER equipped the system with the modular BG software suite. The BG Fusion user interface provides users with access to all available data without having to switch between different applications. The interface also includes a comprehensive statistics package.

Installation and commissioning took only 18 months. Thus DPD was able to connect the Superhub 4 to its national distribution network almost two months earlier than agreed in the contract. On its first day of operation the system sorted 92,000 packages and parcels. The number will go up to more than 500,000 per shift when the startup phase is completed, making the hub ready for the peak season at Christmas.

The new Hub 4 is 470 meters long and almost 40 meters wide. There are 264 loading ramps. The sorting equipment is designed so that packages leave the building three to seven minutes after entering it. Employees in the outgoing goods area load them manually onto trucks or semitrailers.

Dwain McDonald, CEO of DPD: “Everyone involved contributed to the success of this project. We have invested systematically in our network. The superhub will give us plenty of space to expand in the years ahead and respond to the growing need for our services.”

“We are glad to have helped DPD implement its expansion plans in the English market,” says Martin Mossinkoff, director with global responsibility for the BEUMER Group’s Logistics Systems Division. “We’ve worked very successfully with the DPD Group UK for ten years and are happy to have this close business relationship.” The BEUMER Group also delivered and installed sorting and distribution equipment for Hubs 2 and 3.

For more information, please visit https://www.beumergroup.com.