UPS will expand its operation in San Antonio (US) – doubling the site’s package processing capacity and adding alternative fuel vehicles and a CNG fueling station.
The integrator says the expanded ground sorting facility will be retrofitted with automated sorting systems and have twice the package processing capacity and additional capacity is needed due to business growth and increasing customer needs in South Texas.
The expansion will add about 171,000 square feet, bringing the building’s footprint to more than 330,000 square feet.
The building serves UPS customers in Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Wilson, Medina and Kendall counties. The building’s team will continue to provide package pick-up and delivery services during the project, which is expected to be complete mid-2017.
UPS’s Red River District president, Craig Wiltz says: “UPS continuously invests in our integrated delivery network. Population and business growth throughout Texas are driving demand for our services and this facility expansion exemplifies one aspect of our ongoing approach to meeting that demand.”
The project will add capacity for more than 150 more delivery vehicles – called ‘package cars’ – increasing the building’s delivery fleet to more than 340.
UPS will also add 40 class 8 compressed natural gas (CNG) tractors that will be fueled by a new on-site CNG fueling station. Each tractor will displace approximately 25,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year with clean burning natural gas.
The building’s automated sorting systems are designed to move packages through the sort process capturing package data and routing volume to proper load positions. Six-sided decode tunnels will replace traditional scanning to capture package information from address labels.
Label applicators will place ‘smart labels’ on packages for local delivery, providing UPS loaders faster instruction of proper loading. This enhancement is part of UPS’s suite of package flow technologies.
