Bochum is now home to DHL Group's mega parcel centre

Nov 23, 2019: Deutsche Post DHL Group has opened a state-of-the-art mega parcel centre in Germany's Bochum, with a sorting capacity of up to 50,000 shipments per hour. Currently, it facilitates more than 20,000 sorted items per hour, and 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.

At its full capcity in 2020, the Bochum centre will create a total of around 600 jobs subject to social insurance contributions and covered by collective agreements.

“With its high level of sorting performance and use of innovative technology, the Bochum parcel centre 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.

In 2016, Deutsche Post DHL Group acquired approximately 140,000 square metre 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.

Powersaving 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.