From the courier’s planes to their vans (and vice versa), here are the features of the new DHL hub at Malpensa

“We’ve brought a little colour to the grey airport buildings.” This is how the architect, Massimo Roj, who designed DHL’s new hub, which was inaugurated today at Malpensa, presented the large-scale project that conceals the world’s most advanced logistics centre. This €110-million project was created by the company because “We believe in Italy, and Malpensa is a great show of confidence in Italian manufacturing, which needs fast connections with the whole world,” said DHL Italia’s CEO, Nazzarena Franco.

 

Indeed, the new facility can guarantee the flow of goods to and from Italy, from the airports of Ancona, Pisa and Naples, to and from Europe, via Leipzig, Brussels, Paris, Barcelona, Vitoria, London, the East Midlands, Cologne, Zagreb, Athens, Budapest and Thessaloniki, and to and from outside Europe, via Bahrain and Seoul. The latest route, which was opened on 17 November, is the connection to Cincinnati in the United States, with daily flights from Tuesday to Saturday.

There are currently thirty-seven flights a day, over 180 each week, which are operated with a modern fleet including Airbus 330s, which have a load capacity of up to 50 tonnes. So far, there have been over 3200 DHL Express flights to Malpensa. Since 30 December 2020, among other things, DHL Express Italy has been managing the delivery of Covid19 vaccines and their distribution to the regional and national health systems, from the Malpensa hub.

A state-of-the-art “sorter” runs for 4 kilometres, has the capacity to handle more than 38,000 incoming and outgoing items per hour, distributing them at a speed of 2.7 metres per second for parcels, and 1.85 metres per second for envelopes, to the 150 vehicle docking gates of the plant, which covers a total area of 55,000 m². All of the industrial sectors served by DHL Express are handled here, from manufacturing to luxury, from e-commerce to the automotive, chemical and aeronautical sectors. A logistics hub that is all about speed. In fact, the entire parcel sorting chain takes place under one roof.

The main technical features of the hub

DHL Express Italy relied on excellent partners to design the hub. These were Progetto CMR, Fives Group and Johnson Controls Italy, Itinera, Rapiscan and Saco.

Construction of the hub in Malpensa, which was in line with the Group’s “GoGreen 2050 Strategy”, followed the principle of sustainability. This is why it was designed to obtain “LEED Certification”, a voluntary certification programme that promotes a sustainability-oriented approach, acknowledging the performance of buildings in key sectors, such as energy and water saving, reduction of CO₂ emissions, and improvement in the ecological quality of the interiors, materials and resources used.

The new hub is equipped with the technology necessary to efficiently manage maintenance activities. Indeed, the “Building Management System” (BMS) was implemented for real-time monitoring of the consumption of each hi-tech sector and the detection of faults. The warehouse and offices are equipped with a state-of-the-art lighting system that allows monitoring every single light source, also remotely. There are sensors that allow a centralised regulation of the light flow, to improve management of consumption. A photovoltaic system for the production of electricity has been installed on the parking shelters.

The building was conceived to best meet the needs relating to the safety and wellbeing of employees, with state-of-the-art equipment that complies with the highest safety standards, such as: autoblock, which blocks the trucks during the loading/unloading phases; hydraulic platforms that adapt to the loading/unloading height of any vehicle; large forecourts and light signals, to ensure greater ease of docking of heavy goods vehicles; anti-crush bumpers; lighting for heavy goods vehicles, to increase safety while loading/unloading articulated lorries; air-conditioning of the warehouse spaces and operating stations on the mezzanines of the sorting system.

 

Translated by Bonanomi Vittoria, Ciocca Elisabetta, Perinelli Giorgia

Reviewed by Prof. Rolf Cook