DPD has put into operation its new €42 million parcel depot in Erftstadt near Cologne, Germany,and also opened a new depot in the Netherlands.
The facility, which went into operation immediately after the peak Christmas season on December27, employs over 300 staff and up to 350 delivery drivers. It replaces the previous location inFrechen and serves the Cologne conurbation among other areas.
The Erftstadt depot covers a total area of 83,000 sqm, the equivalent of 11 football pitches,and has 320 loading gates handling up to 120 linehaul operations. The sorting hall alone measures13,000 sqm with the neighbouring office building covering 2,800 sqm.
The state-of-the-art conveyor installation at the heart of the sorting hall has the capacity tohandle over 18,000 parcels per hour at a speed of 2.5 metres per second along the conveyor belts.Thereby, the shipments are automatically weighed, scanned and measured and then redirected to therespective loading gate.
In line with DPD’s commitment to environment and climate protection, mostly natural, recyclablematerials such as wood were used for the construction of the new depot. The office building isheated and cooled by geothermal energy. The event-oriented lighting system with large windows letsa lot of daylight into the hall while electric light is only used in places where it is currentlyneeded. The noise pollution has also been considerably reduced through modern, low-noise conveyortechnology.
Meanwhile, DPD also opened a new eco-friendly depot in Etten-Leur, southern Netherlands, latelast year to expand its business activities in the region. DPD explained that the region is veryimportant for the company and its logistic activities within the Netherlands due to the extensiveroad network to Zeeland, Belgium and the main ports.
The depot in Etten-Leur, with some 80 staff, is an energy neutral facility with both officesand the warehouse featuring state-of-the art heat and cold recovery techniques. Motion detectorsand light sensors in the offices ensure that employees minimise electricity use.
DPD Netherlands said it expects to grow by 10-15% in the coming years and the new depot willsupport this growth.
