UPS To Build 'Hub of The Future' In Louisville, Kentucky

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UPS To Build 'Hub of The Future' In Louisville, Kentucky
    LOUISVILLE, Ky., March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- United Parcel Service today
announced the selection of Louisville, Ky., as the site for a cutting-edge,
automated sorting facility that will help ensure the company's position as the
leader in the package and document distribution field.
    The company said it would spend $860 million on the project, creating a
sorting hub that will use the most advanced automation technology available.
The new hub primarily is a response to the company's strong growth in both the
domestic air express market and in the international distribution field.
    The sorting facility, dubbed "Hub 2000", will require a 2.7 million-
square-foot building and will be built at Louisville International Airport to
replace UPS's main express hub.  The new center will nearly double UPS's
current hub capability in Louisville and ultimately will create up to 6,000
new full-and part-time jobs.  UPS currently employs more than 15,000 in
Louisville.
    "We've poured every technological and practical innovation we've learned
during 90 years in the logistics and distribution business into the design of
this new hub and our customers will directly benefit," said Tom Weidemeyer,
UPS Airlines President and Chief Operating Officer.
    "Hub 2000 certainly is the largest construction project ever undertaken by
our company," Weidemeyer continued.  "But it's much more than that.  It's
leadership."
    Beyond the sheer technology incorporated in the new hub, which will
improve even further the speed and reliability of the service provided to
customers, Hub 2000 will be constructed with engineering ergonomics in mind to
reduce the physical demands of the package sorting jobs.  Sorting automation,
which drastically reduces the lifting and lowering of packages, combined with
improved facility design in general, will improve safety and working
conditions for all UPS employees in the hub.
    High-speed conveyors and "smart labels", read by overhead scanners, will
enable the facility to process 300,000 packages and documents per hour when it
is completed in 2001. The hub can be expanded in subsequent years to process
as many as 500,000 packages per hour.  Currently, the Louisville Hub processes
about 165,000 packages per hour.  New systems also will be included to speed
up even more the exchange of information required for international packages
to clear customs.
    "Smart packages", bearing machine-readable labels, are the key to Hub 2000
automation.  Many UPS customers already have, or soon will have, the ability
to produce the labels using special software provided by UPS.  UPS hub
employees will apply "smart labels" to packages that arrive without them.
    UPS's decision to locate Hub 2000 in Louisville was due, in part, to
Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton's commitment of state resources to provide workforce
development assistance and other improvements to insure the hub's success.
    "Working together with Kentucky leaders from the fields of business,
education and local government, we've developed an innovative program that
accomplishes two critical goals," said Gov. Patton.  "We will insure that UPS
has the workers it needs to make Hub 2000 a success, and at the same time,
we'll be developing a high-quality workforce inventory in Kentucky with skills
that match the demands of our booming economy."
    The state has agreed to launch a variety of initiatives to provide
attractive aid packages, dormitory living and work-friendly schedules to
students who want to work at night for UPS.
    Construction of the facility is planned to begin this year and is
scheduled to be completed in 2001.  Some sections of the hub will be completed
early so that additional capacity can be brought on-line, beginning in 2000.
    UPS, the world's largest package distribution company and a partner of the
1998 and 2000 Olympic Games, employs 331,000 people worldwide and operates a
fleet of 216 jet aircraft.  With 1997 revenues of $22.5 billion on a volume of
3 billion packages, UPS provides a complete package of logistics and delivery
services to more than 200 countries and territories around the world.
SOURCE United Parcel Service
http://www.ups.com CONTACT:
Ken Shapero, in Louisville, 502-329-6522, or
502-329-6552, or Norman Black, in Atlanta, 404-828-7593, both of
United Parcel Service