GLS Belgium has invested €8.2 million in a new ecological depot in Nivelles, located inWallonia, to be opened by the end of this year, designed for separate handling of parcels and
freight.This is the company’s third ecological depot in Belgium and thirteenth in Europe with around 265employees and delivery drivers working at the site. It will have the capacity to sort and deliverup to 35,000 parcels and 2,400 pallets per day. The parcel sorting terminal with 103 gates willmeasure nearly 5,000 sqm while 4,000 sqm are provided for the freight terminal which will have 57gates.
“The separation of processes enables high-quality sorting which is industrialised andspecialised by the type of shipment,” Eberhard Fritze, Managing Director West Europe, said.
The new site is located directly at the A7 motorway, midway between the GLS depots in Brusselsand Charleroi. “The number of shipments is increasing,” Fritze added. “Reorganising the tours willenable Nivelles to take up a part of the activities from the two depots while reducing thedifferent distribution routes.”
The depot in Nivelles was designed in line with GLS ecological standards and featuresstate-of-the-art scanning and conveyor technologies and a security system.
As part of its sustainability initiative Think Green, GLS equips each of its new buildings with ‘ green’ features. In the Belgian depot Puurs, for example, the heat pump, the rainwater use and theinstallation of solar panels have given good results in practice. This same equipment is also to bedeployed at the site of Nivelles and Habay. The latter is also under construction with the aim of anet reduction in CO2 emissions and halving water consumption.
