UPS upgrades European network with ‘highly automated’ Dutch superhub

UPS has opened a new automated package sorting and delivery facility in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, aimed at facilitating cross-border trade and improving its package delivery service for businesses.

The 27,000 square metre superhub is equipped with advanced technology that can sort up to 29,000 packages per hour, with the potential to expand to 40,000 per hour.

“Superhubs like this one are game changers and drive our European transborder connectivity, especially in the tech corridor where Eindhoven sits, the fastest growing part of the country where speed and reliability count,” said Nando Cesarone, President, UPS International.

Eindhoven is located in a region whose key industries include high tech and healthcare. The facility is a transit hub for goods travelling through the region between Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.

The new facility in Eindhoven has miles of conveyors and is equipped with UPS’s automated package sorting technology to increase the speed of packages moving through the facility.

The new €130 million facility is a part of the company’s multi-year, $2 billion European investment plan, which aims to modernise and expand the UPS network across the continent.

Over the past four years, ground time in transit reductions of up to one day from the Netherlands to 25 European countries have made further contributions to UPS’s European transborder connectivity.

Early in 2017, the company announced plans for extensive upgrades to its smart global logistics network, enhancing capacity and efficiency through the use of state-of-the-art processes, information technology and automation.

Highly automated, high-capacity superhubs like the new Eindhoven facility create more options to manage growing operating volumes.

UPS currently has 16 facilities across the country. Near Eindhoven, UPS has 66,000 square metres of dedicated healthcare facilities in Venlo and Roermond, offering customers services such as temperature control, a formal quality management system and a compliance program.