Operations have begun at Australia Post’s new AU$240m (US$165m) Brisbane Parcel Facility in preparation for the busy peak delivery season.
The new 50,000m2 facility is Australia Post’s largest sorting center and can handle approximately 700,000 parcels per day at full capacity. The building also includes 3,244 solar panels, which generate enough energy to power 280 homes per year.
Inside the facility there are two Beumer high-speed sorters capable of processing over 50,000 parcels per hour, four robotic arms that can together clear 320 cages per hour, a parcel picker that can move 2,500 parcels per hour, and 23 automated guided vehicles that can lift and move objects weighing up to 1.4 tons each and then place them down to an accuracy of ~5mm.
Australia Post Group chief operating officer, Bob Black, commented, “Australians love online shopping, spending AU$27.5bn (US$18.9bn) nationally online last year and this facility will be able to process those parcels more efficiently right across the network – getting it from merchant to customer more quickly.”
Over the coming peak Australia Post expects to deliver up to 3.5 million parcels on its busiest day, facilitated by a national AU$900m, three-year investment in infrastructure and automation.
“As we approach Christmas, we’ll have more planes in the air, more vehicles on the road, more people in our facilities and on the phones, and our post offices will be open longer so that we can deliver our customers the best festive season yet,” added Black.
The opening of the facility comes following the announcement of Australia Post’s largest Christmas recruitment drive to date. The drive includes the recruitment of 3,700 people across the country to help deliver parcels. There will be 2,500 Christmas casuals hired across the processing and transport areas and an additional 1,200 fixed-term roles available to serve customers in post offices, customer contact centers and across the delivery network.
To watch a video of Australia Post’s group chief operating officer, Bob Black, talking about the new facility in more detail, click here.
