HAMILTON -- As we enter the holiday season, shipping companies like DHL Express Canada are expecting a big boom in business.
Right now, the Hamilton Gateway Facility has been sorting around 50,000 to 55,000 shipments a day, but that is projected to peak to 100,000 around the second Monday in December.
The hub is located at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport.
It’s where packages get offloaded from planes and sent through the automated sort system.
“The system has smart logic built into it indicating where that shipment should go,” explained Darryl Wettlaufer, Vice President of Operations at DHL Express Canada.
Wettlaufer added depending on the destination, packages are directed to the reload area to continue their journey to another facility, or to courier trucks to be delivered.
“We can sort 28,000 shipments an hour over our two sort belts in this building, which really speeds up the flow,” added Wettlaufer.
A package can move through the building’s sorting systems in as little as 90 seconds.
Currently, 350 employees work at the Hamilton facility, but the company is actively hiring more. It has continued to see increased demand for its services, largely attributable to pandemic supply chain constraints.
“As ports closed and airports closed around the world, more and more companies shifted to a faster, more time-definite model to service their volume,” said Wettlaufer.
Wettlaufer noted that they are already seeing increased shipping volumes in October and November, as businesses try to get ahead of supply chain challenges, and people start doing their Christmas shopping earlier than they would pre-pandemic.
Wettlaufer’s advice for anyone ordering or sending packages this holiday season is simple: do it early.
“My biggest advice, especially this year with unknown supply chain challenges around the world, is get your orders in and get your shipments in as soon as possible. Last minute shopping could be quite dangerous.”
