UPS supersizes in Salt Lake City

UPS is to build one of its largest packaging processing hubs to date at Salt Lake City as part of an ongoing expansion programme. When completed in late 2018, the new 840,000 sq ft facility will process 69,000 packages per hour, adding to the existing 200,000 sq ft operations in the region.
The $275m project forms part of a capital investment programme announced over the past 24 months to add new capacity and modernize existing facilities.
UPS senior vice president of global engineering and sustainability, Mark Wallace, said: “This new regional hub is one of our strategic initiatives to continue to build the long-term future of UPS.”
He said the location was chosen because Utah is the crossroads of the Western US. He added that state-of-the-art automation technology would be deployed to improve performance, increase capacity and create additional flexibility “to handle the non-stop growth of e-commerce business in the region.”
Accuracy of data collection will be improved, boosting reliability and processing flexibility. Two automated processing areas will focus on smaller-sized packages, typical of e-commerce purchases.
UPS has assembled nearly 160 acres for the hub which will include fueling facilities for diesel and natural gas vehicles.
UPS expects that the investment will help create over 1,500 jobs. It currently employs more than 3,500 workers across Utah in package, heavy freight and contract logistics operations.