INDIANAPOLIS — The FedEx hub at the Indianapolis International Airport is preparing for a busy holiday season. The facility can process 111,000 packages an hour. As the holiday season approaches more and more packages will make their way through the facility.
"The peak starts next week after the Thanksgiving Holiday ... we are already seeing positive volume trends,” Jake Dorris, the Managing Director for Hub Operations at FedEx Express, said. “We are looking forward to a busy season that kicks off next week."
Before a package is processed inside the facility, it is brought in by either a plane or truck. The containers they are brought in on can hold anywhere from 200-400 packages.
The facility sees 850 planes per week, both inbound and outbound. FedEx is investing $1.8 billion in the facility.
"The auto primary is one of the state-of-the-art technologies that we included in the expansion,” Dorris said. “It allows us to process more; that's one way to achieve that 111k per hour. It essentially allows us to get more boxes through."
During non-busy seasons, package sorting takes about 2.5-3 hours, but once the holiday season begins, those sorts could take up to four hours. Sorting moves smoothers thanks to new technology, but it does eliminate jobs held by employees previously.
"We are making sure we put employees in positions where we can keep them safe and have them doing what they can do as a human to bring that value and the automation replaces those positions," Dorris said.
Earlier in the year, FedEx sent out a list of ways they planned to make up for revenue short falls which can be seen by clicking here.
We asked how those changes, which included reduction in flight frequencies, consolidation of sort operations and the closure of 90 FedEx offices, would affect Indianapolis. We couldn’t get an answer from FedEx officials.
However, they did say the FedEx is hiring for part-time handler positions. There are 1,700 positions available across Indiana with a majority In Indianapolis.
