UPS announced the grand opening of its second largest ground package processing facility in the United States and fourth largest package operation in its worldwide network. The new Atlanta sortation and delivery center is part of an expanded network of regional hubs designed to improve efficiency, service levels and reliability. The Atlanta hub will process approximately 100,000 parcels per hour via a highly orchestrated series of conveyors, chutes, belts and ramps, into waiting trailers for transfer to another UPS location, or into package delivery vehicles bound for area businesses and residents. (See tour video.)

“UPS is installing high-tech systems that make our network more flexible, more resilient, and more anticipatory,” said George Willis, President of U.S. Operations for UPS. “Atlanta is home to the largest of a new class of sortation centers, or super hubs, which enable us to optimize how we move shipments through a precisely managed network of more than 1,000 small package operating facilities in the United States.”

Integrated Global Smart Logistics Network

The new high-speed processing facilities reduce time-in-transit and enhance flexibility within the company’s efficient hub-and-spoke network. Other highly automated UPS primary hubs include the Worldport air cargo facility in Louisville, Ky. and the Chicago Area Consolidation Hub (CACH) ground facility for truck and railway cargo.  The company is adding more than 350,000 pieces per hour of additional sortation capacity in the United States before the 2018 holiday season.  The new UPS Atlanta regional hub primarily serves the southeastern United States.

Similar facilities are opening in: Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas; Phoenix, Ariz.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Indianapolis, Ind.

“The new regional hubs incorporate advanced package processing technologies with proprietary network planning software that efficiently integrates UPS air and ground operations across the U.S. and around the globe,” said Willis. These super hubs create more options for how packages are transported along the way to their final destinations. If a surge in package volume could overload on one sorting facility, we can redirect volume to other transportation modes and sortation facilities to avoid delays.”

Innovative Hiring Program

UPS created more than 3,000 new jobs for Atlanta residents at the new site. The company utilized its Hiring Our Heroes veteran employment program, and partnered with The Center for Working Families and the United Way to recruit and hire employees. The Center for Working Families developed an innovative program, now called the UPS Community Recruitment Initiative, which acts as a centralized talent pool for ready-to-work job candidates who live near the new facility. To further serve the thousands of employees from the surrounding communities, MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) installed its first public transportation bus stop on private property at the new UPS site.

UPS employs more than 14,000 people across Georgia in package delivery operations, ground freight, aircraft operations, data center management and contract logistics.  Product and technology development, global transportation network planning and other corporate functions are based in metro Atlanta.  Atlanta has been home to UPS’s global headquarters for more than 25 years.