myHermes have just opened their brand new purpose built, state-of-the-art automated parcel distribution hub in Rugby, the biggest of its kind in the UK, creating over 100 new jobs.
Located at the Rugby Gateway, the Midlands Super Hub measures 270,000 square feet, the equivalent of 34 football pitches, and has the capability to efficiently process in excess of one million parcels each day. As a result, the company’s overall parcel processing capacity will be increased by 45%, ensuring it will continue to comfortably handle rising volumes driven by the ongoing growth of ecommerce in the UK and overseas.
“We are extremely proud to officially open our Midlands Super Hub in Rugby, the largest parcel hub of its kind in the UK. This substantial project demonstrates our total commitment to delivering world-class delivery solutions, not just for today, but for the foreseeable future“.
– Carole Woodhead, CEO of Hermes
The new facility
It’s hard to describe the size of the facility except that it’s massive. I’ve visited a few parcel hubs over the years and this one dwarfs them all. With a two tier conveyor system the site can handle a million parcels a day, but even more impressive they’ll be installing a third conveyor on top of the existing two to take their total capacity at the sites to 1.5 million parcels per day.
The technology is extraordinary, even with the size of the facility a parcel can be offloaded from a collection container onto the conveyor system and without being touched by human hand will whizz along at 5.6 miles per hour (I can’t run that fast!) and exit down a chute to the delivery truck in just two or three minutes. Bearing in mind there are 174 docks for trucks that’s an incredible feat and only possible due to the automation and parcel barcode reading kit that can scan parcels as they zip along the conveyors.
Women in Logistics
The courier business is often thought to be dominated by men and, whilst that might be so at some companies, it was so refreshing to see that myHermes have a healthy complement of women starting with their CEO, Carole Woodhead (who along with COO Martijn de Lange broke the ground for the new depot just 18 months ago).
It’s not just in the boardroom at myHermes where women excel, the driver of the HGV which broke the ribbon amid a shower of cannon fired confetti was Tracey Middleton who has been with myHermes for over five years.
Previously based at their Nuneaton depot, Tracey will be moving to the Rugby Hub. Although on annual leave, Tracey took time out of her holiday to drive the first truck through the gates and officially open the new facility.
Hermes Deputy Transport Operations Manager Rebecca Hendon, who held one end of the ribbon which Tracey broke, proudly told me “Women in logistics is the future!” and that is certainly the case at myHermes (That’s Rebecca on the right of the picture).
Dan and I are always proud to know so many women in business, both in retailers and at many of the marketplaces and third party service providers that we speak to on a daily basis. It’s great to see women excelling at myHermes and being recognised for their invaluable contributions. Long may it continue.
Innovation at myHermes
Lessons have been learnt from myHermes Morley depot in the north and integrated into the design of the new Rugby hub. For instance in Morley smaller vans bringing in late deliveries are offloaded into cages before transfer to the automatic sortation conveyors. At Rugby the facility has been designed so that these parcels can immediately be offloaded directly onto the conveyors.
You may look at myHermes as an economy parcel carrier and think that they lag behind their competitors, but in reality they are innovating like mad and expanding at an incredible pace. Their innovation centre showcases everything from autonomous delivery vehicles and starship robots to virtual reality software enabling visualisation of new warehouses, vehicles and rooms to iron our design issues before prototypes are made.
myHermes are also working on new self-service hardware for myHermes Parcelshops to enable consumers to book parcels or send returns in seconds.
5 Responses
are they going to loose more parcels now they have larger premises or what
Absolutely the worst delivery company in business, have no idea how they are still going.. disgraceful .
Drivers are lazy disrespectful liers, I’ve never once had a trouble free delivery from Hermes.
Their phone number for talking to someone doesn’t actually have an option to actually speak to anyone, ive been waiting now 49 hours for a call back they said would be within 4 hours, ive sent over 20 emails without a meaningful reply, all I get is the stock ” sorry for any inconvenience” nonsense, their live chat is completely unhelpful and a waste of 6 hours.
They failed yet again to deliver and now are trying to return it to the sender claiming an ordinary garden gate (unlocked) is a restriction, I even offered to leave it open. I sent them a picture of the gate (closed) to show them it isn’t a restriction but so far had no reply.
I get a lot of deliveries every week without a problem, I even got a delivery the day hermes attempted their first try with this order, I try not to use sellers that use Hermes because of this very reason.. in 2 years I’ve not had a trouble free delivery from Hermes and this last attempt is the 3rd they have failed completely to even leave the delivery within walking distance of my address. I had soneone knock on my door because they found it in the road… outside my home, how lucky was that, one of my orders was once found in a neighbors greenhouse, why no one knows.
I send around a 100 parcels a month with MyHermes and can’t remember the last time I had a parcel go missing or damaged. The parcel shop I used is fantastic as able to be in and out in a couple of minutes. Sounds to me that you either have a bad drive on your delivery route or there is more to this story than is being told.
it has been great since last september but for no reson why its all going tits up again drivers just do not give a toss left a parcel with some children about 14 doors down no card was put through the door another cockup he left in the dustbin in the back garden what kind of ide0t driver would do that royal mail will not do that hermies will and do lost a parcel within 24 hours hemies cant find it good job i insured it with them £185.00 got my refund bet that hert them paying out for once