Deutsche Post DHL Group opens new mega parcel center in Bochum
Deutsche Post DHL Group is continuing to strengthen its efficient parcel network in Germany and opened a state-of-the-art mega parcel center in Bochum. Together with the Minister-President of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, and Bochum’s mayor, Thomas Eiskirch, Tobias Meyer, Corporate Board Member for Post & Paket Deutschland, Deutsche Post DHL Group, gave the official go-ahead for the new location in the heart of the Ruhr region. With a sorting capacity of up to 50,000 shipments per hour, the Bochum parcel center, along with the Obertshausen parcel center near Frankfurt am Main, which opened in 2016, is the largest DHL parcel center in Germany and also one of the most efficient parcel centers in all of Europe. When it reaches its full capacity in 2020, the new location will create a total of around 600 jobs subject to social insurance contributions and covered by collective agreements. As in the area of parcel and mail delivery, at the Bochum parcel center, Deutsche Post DHL also works with directly employed employees in a co-determined company – thereby setting itself apart from many other companies in the industry. With currently more than 20,000 sorted items per hour, the Bochum parcel center is already providing major support for the fast and reliable processing of shipments in the Ruhr region in the run-up to the 2019 Christmas period. The new parcel center is thus also supporting Deutsche Post DHL’s ongoing quality initiative in Germany, which, in the current year, has already resulted in a significant reduction in the number of complaints and an improvement in the company’s customer-care service.
“With its high level of sorting performance and use of innovative technology, the Bochum parcel center is making a major contribution to Deutsche Post DHL’s German parcel network. This will enable us to fulfill our service promise to our customers in the region even more reliably as shipment volumes continue to rise. At the same time, we are delighted to be able to create jobs subject to social security contributions and covered by collective agreements at a logistically advantageous location in the Ruhr region and thereby play our part in the development of the region,” says Tobias Meyer. Meyer points out that DHL business customers in the region will also benefit from the immediate proximity to the new parcel center as their shipments can be picked up at later times and still be delivered the following day throughout Germany.
“The fact that DHL is opening one of Europe’s most efficient parcel centers in Bochum is further proof of the attractiveness of the Ruhr region and strengthens North Rhine-Westphalia as a leading logistics location. Investments in the Ruhr region are worthwhile for companies – as the development of the former Opel site in Bochum, supported by state funding, once again demonstrates. DHL’s investment is providing 600 people in the area with future-proof employment, and a large number of other companies will be creating thousands more jobs in the next few years. New companies, high innovation potential and well-paid jobs – that is exactly what the state government is giving momentum to through the Ruhr Conference. We want to quickly translate technical solutions from the laboratories into practice, be attractive to start-up entrepreneurs and use brownfield sites for new developments. The latter has been achieved on the Opel site in Bochum by companies such as DHL,” says Armin Laschet.
“DHL’s choice of location at Mark 51°7 was a strong signal of a new departure and a sign of confidence in the future viability of the city and the entire region. Bochum Perspective 2022 immediately prepared the ground, thereby laying the foundations for the revitalization of the area. Today, it is the site of one of the most efficient and state-of-the-art parcel centers in Europe. Soon, there will be 600 people working here, and soon also more than 6,000 in the complex as a whole. I am delighted that DHL has chosen Bochum as its business location, and that the success story of Mark 51°7 continues,” says Thomas Eiskirch.
In 2016, Deutsche Post DHL Group acquired approximately 140,000 square meters of space at the former Opel site in Bochum-Laer. Construction of the parcel center began in fall 2017 and was completed on schedule within two years. The new parcel center building alone covers an area of 40,000 square meters, equivalent to the size of more than five football fields. In addition, extensive measures were taken to make sure the new location is as energy-efficient as possible in line with Deutsche Post DHL Group’s sustainability strategy. For example, the parcel center is supplied with electricity and heat by its own block-type thermal power station. The Group therefore not only procures electricity or heat, but also feeds the heat generated in the block-type thermal power station into Bochum’s public utility network. A roof-mounted photovoltaic system is also planned. Power-saving LED lamps controlled by presence detectors and daylight are used to illuminate the parcel center. With 35 charging columns of its own, the Bochum location is already well-equipped for the further expansion of e-mobility, with further charging columns to follow. Deutsche Post DHL has invested a three-digit million sum in the location.
In March 2019, Deutsche Post DHL launched a major quality offensive, as part of which, between 2019 and 2021, an additional approximately €150 million will be invested, for instance, in additional personnel, new services for customers, improved shipment management and notifications, and 3,000 new DHL Packstations.
Including the new location in Bochum, Deutsche Post DHL Group operates a network of 36 parcel centers in Germany, in which a total of around 1.2 million items can be sorted during every hour of operation. Deutsche Post DHL Group already ships an average of around five million parcel items for its customers nationwide every working day. On peak days before Christmas, the number climbs to as many as 11 million parcels per day.