DHL opens mega parcel center

“The new parcel center building alone covers an area of 40,000 square meters, equivalent to the size of more than five football fields,” said DHL, which would not reveal the investment cost but said it totaled a “three-digit million sum.”

At the Bochum center, DHL uses directly employed workers, “thereby setting itself apart from many other companies in the industry.” 

Support for peak season

DHL added, “With currently more than 20,000 sorted items per hour, the Bochum parcel center is already providing major support for the fast and reliable processing of shipments in the Ruhr region in the run-up to the 2019 Christmas period.

“The new parcel center is thus also supporting Deutsche Post DHL’s ongoing quality initiative in Germany, which, in the current year, has already resulted in a significant reduction in the number of complaints and an improvement in the company’s customer-care service.” 

DHL took extensive measures to ensure the new center is as energy efficient as possible in line with the group’s sustainability strategy. For example, the parcel center is supplied with electricity and heat by its own block-type thermal power station.

Sustainability measures

DHL feeds the heat generated in the block-type thermal power station back into Bochum’s public utility network. “A roof-mounted photovoltaic system is also planned,” said a statement.

“Power-saving LED lamps controlled by presence detectors and daylight are used to illuminate the parcel center. With 35 charging columns of its own, the Bochum location is already well-equipped for the further expansion of e-mobility, with further charging columns to follow.”

Including the new location in Bochum, Deutsche Post DHL Group operates a network of 36 parcel centers in Germany, in which around 1.2 million items can be sorted during every hour of operation.

Deutsche Post DHL Group already ships an average of around 5 million parcel items for its customers nationwide every working day. “On peak days before Christmas, the number climbs to as many as 11 million parcels per day,” said a statement.

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