A surge in mining activity and online retail sales in south east Queensland has prompted TNT Express to open a new freight facility in Brisbane’s north.
The 5,000 m2 depot features a fully automated parcel sortation system with the capacity to scan and sort 3,500 parcels an hour.
The state-of-the-art system sorts domestic and international freight, and is only the second Trisort SDX Shoe Sorter to be installed by the company in Australia.
TNT Express photos.
Located at Eagle Farm, with quick access to the M1 Gateway and Port of Brisbane motorways, the new depot was constructed to support the growing demands in freight movement in Queensland.
TNT Express Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands managing director Bob Black, said prior to the opening of TNT Express Brisbane North, the smaller depots’ capacities were often exceeded.
“Our Brisbane North depot allows us to streamline our business and places us in a strong position to continue to provide our customers with the highest levels of service, including quicker delivery times,” said Mr Black.
“We attribute the significant increase in freight passing through our depot to Australia’s current economic drivers, which we view as the mining and online retail industries.
“We have also noticed a particular surge in international and priority freight heading to Papua New Guinea.”
Mr Black said the trend for purchasing online continues to grow exponentially.
At the new Brisbane depot there is a fleet of over 50 vehicles and 185 operations and customer service staff, the latter working from the facility’s two-storey, 730 m2 office block.
The Brisbane North depot is designed to significantly reduce power use, water consumption and waste disposal requirements.
The facility uses green certified products, recycled materials for fill, native plants for landscaping, and was built from 80 per cent recycled construction materials.
Advanced sub-metered air conditioning, general power and lighting improves building efficiency, and translucent roof sheeting for each bay in the warehouse reduces the need for electric lighting.
The advanced air-conditioning system monitors CO2 levels, providing additional fresh air to heavily occupied rooms.
The system gauges whether outside air temperature and humidity is within the right range to allow the building to be cooled using natural air only.
