French express operator Chronopost has invested €1 million in new sorting equipment to speed uphandling at its depot at Marseille airport and has also launched a new domestic flight to
Rennes.La Poste’s domestic express unit said it has acquired a new automated sorting machine which hasincreased handling capcity by five times at the depot at Marignane, close to the airport. Theoperator will be able to sort up to 4,500 items an hour compared to the previous 950 items.
The depot handles about 10,000 items a day for local customers, either as pick-ups ordeliveries, and also handles a further 8,000 daily documents and parcels that transit throughMarseille to or from other branches in southern French coastal areas. Security is ensured withvideo surveillance and x-ray checks on all parcels.
Christian Emery, Chronopost’s managing director, commented: “Chronopost has decided to invest €1million in the acquisition of an automated sorting machine for the Marignane site in response toits constant growth, which has reached 18% since the start of the year.” Depot managerPhilippe
Fassy added: “A parcel now stays only two minutes in the building compared to one hourbefore.”
The express operator has also enhanced services at Marseille with the launch of a new dailyreturn flight to Rennes, in north-west France, at the end of November, in order to speed updeliveries to the Atlantic coast region. “We hope to be able to quickly increase our transitbusiness by 25-30%, which would be 2,000 additional tonnes a year,” Fassy said.
In the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) region as a whole, Chronopost handles nearly 40,000parcels a day at its nine locations. The region generated revenues of €24.4 million for the companylast year.
