Vanderlande Industries has won the order to supply the automated sorting systems at a new hubfor UK parcel delivery company Yodel in central England.
Yodel, the re-branded company formed by the merger of HDN and DHL Domestic UK, has acquired thefreehold to a purpose-built distribution centre to meet the company’s ambitious growth plans.
Ideally located at a prime site in Wednesbury, West Midlands, it combines an excellent locationfor operational and transport requirements. The facility, in association with Yodel’s other sortcentres will provide savings in operational costs, together with increased sorting capacity tosupport Yodel’s ambitious growth plans, the Dutch-based supplier stated.
Yodel delivers over 200 million parcels per year to every postcode in the UK on behalf of manybusinesses. As the home delivery industry is predicted to grow Yodel is focusing on updating itstechnology and increasing its capacity for the future. With the Vanderlande sorting systems, thenew Wednesbury facility will provide an intelligent, state-of-the-art systems platform to optimisebenefits from improved parcel handling processes.
“Yodel is focused on delivering the very best service to our customers and the efficiency of ourbusiness is key to this”, said Jonathan Smith, Chief Executive of Yodel. “Vanderlande have anexcellent track record of providing tailor-made sorting equipment that enables us to optimiseour throughput and maximise productivity. We have worked with Vanderlande in the past and have beenimpressed with their understanding of our needs and their ability to deliver what we require. As aresult Yodel is pleased to be continuing our working relationship with them on thisproject as we believe them to be ideally positioned to help us as we invest for thefuture.”
Vanderlande Industries will provide the complete turnkey parcel sorting system, including thesteelwork and mezzanine floors. Two Vanderlande CROSSORTER 900 systems will be implemented tocreate the required sorting capacity. The sorters will run in the same direction at a speed of 2.3metres per second. Each sorter can reach every destination, so a pre-sort system is not necessary.Merging spiral chutes allow both sorters to sort parcels to any one of the 38 extendibles or 28internal out-feeds. To create optimum process control the system will be equipped with theVanderlande VITAL software suite.
