Automated sorters will strengthen Poczta Polska's logistics network. Proceedings are underway to purchase three modern machines.
Poczta Polska is embarking on one of its most important investments in recent years. A procurement process for three modern, fully automated sorting machines has just been launched. These machines will enable efficient sorting of the growing volume of parcels. As part of its new strategy, Poczta Polska plans to allocate as much as PLN 1.2 billion for investments in automation, digitization, and the expansion of its logistics network architecture.
Modern sorters will be used to process CEP (courier, express, and parcel) shipments at sorting facilities in Wrocław, Lisi Ogon (near Bydgoszcz), and Lublin. Automation at Poczta Polska is one of the key actions planned and included in the Company's strategy for 2021–2023. To optimize logistics processes and develop services in the CEP market, as well as to adapt processes to growing customer expectations, the Company is investing in modern machinery.
" Poczta Polska is developing its logistics architecture. The company has just begun implementing strategic changes that have been merely planned for over a decade and now require effective implementation ," says Tomasz Zdzikot, President of the Management Board of Poczta Polska, adding, " The courier market is changing. This is one of the three main strategic areas, alongside logistics and digitization, in which we want to continue to develop intensively. According to our adopted Strategy to 2023, these are our priorities, closely linked to new investments. Since the beginning of the pandemic, e-commerce development has accelerated dramatically, and Poczta Polska is also accelerating its investments, in line with our slogan: 'The world is changing, and the Post Office is changing with it.' The purchase of new sorting machines will enable us to handle the growing volumes of courier shipments more efficiently. Our goal is a modern and efficient Post Office that meets the expectations of its customers."
New, fully automated machines for processing KEP parcels, selected through a recently announced procurement process, will expand Poczta Polska's logistics network. The new sorters are expected to process between 8,000 and 11,000 parcels per hour.
Poczta Polska plans to put the first sorting machine into operation in Wrocław, which handles incoming and outgoing shipments within Lower Silesia, into service in 2022. The sorter will have 190 chutes for precisely sorting parcels down to the collection points and delivery areas.
In 2023, additional new sorters will begin operation at the Lisi Ogon sorting facility near Bydgoszcz (responsible for servicing the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship) and the Lublin sorting facility (processing shipments from the eastern part of the country, as well as parcels transported by rail from China to Poland). The Lisi Ogon sorter will separate shipments using 159 chutes. The machine planned for the Lublin logistics center will have as many as 178 chutes.
These sorters will be among the most modern on the market. They will also provide support for other areas (regions).
" We are striving to make Poczta Polska even more modern, both in terms of operational processes and procedures, as well as our infrastructure and machinery. Thanks to investments that automate work, and in particular those supporting logistics processes, we will increase the volume of automatically processed shipments, guaranteeing customers the quality and timeliness they now expect, " says Andrzej Bodziony, Vice President of Poczta Polska.
New investments will also translate into improved ergonomics and workflow within individual sorting facilities by shifting the parcel sorting process from the current manual process to machine-based. Poczta Polska's next step, as part of its logistics process automation, will be the purchase of a sorter for the new WER Warszawa 2 sorting facility, which the company plans to launch as part of the Strategic Logistics Network Automation Project.
Poczta Polska's investments are, among other things, a response to the systematically developing e-commerce sector, which has significantly increased its share in the overall shopping market, carried out by both large and smaller entities.
This year, the company intends to allocate PLN 400 million for investments in, among others, parcel machines, digitization, logistics, and process automation.