UPS has completed the multi-phase expansion of its Louisville Centennial ground package sortation and distribution facility. The project has created 300 new full- and part-time jobs and features UPS’s advanced package processing technologies.
The Louisville super hub’s strategic proximity to UPS’s Worldport air hub at Louisville International Airport supports end-of-runway express services like UPS Next Day Air and UPS eFulfillment that many e-commerce companies demand. The Centennial hub can insert packages into UPS’s air operations as late as 1:30 a.m. for delivery across the country the same day.
Now covering more than 19 football fields, the expanded facility can process approximately 85,000 packages per hour via nearly 25 miles of conveyors using highly automated processing equipment. Six-sided laser label decode tunnels will rapidly capture package information from address labels. High speed label applicators will place UPS “smart labels” on packages at a rate of 3 per second, providing UPS personnel instructions for proper routing and loading into waiting trailers headed to destinations across the country, or into package delivery vehicles bound for Louisville-area businesses and residents.
“Super hubs” like Centennial increase the speed and flexibility of packages moving through UPS’s smart global logistics network. They also have a significantly higher package processing capacity than most other package operations facilities.
The Louisville hub expansion project is part of a multi-year UPS investment plan to modernize and expand the company’s global network, including addition of several new facilities and acquisition of new cargo aircraft.
In November, UPS also opened a new package delivery facility in Richwood, Ky. to serve the rapidly growing business and residential demand in the surrounding area that includes Cincinnati, Ohio. Both facilities utilize UPS’s proprietary network planning software that integrates UPS’s air and ground operations across the U.S. and around the globe. The technology enables UPS to more efficiently manage spikes in shipping volume and severe weather.
UPS employs more than 29,000 people across Kentucky in package delivery operations, air operations, ground freight, healthcare logistics and contract logistics. Louisville is the home of UPS’s Worldport air hub, the largest automated package handling facility in the world, and the center point of UPS’s worldwide air network.
