UPS to build new Salt Lake City-based regional operations hub

UPS recently announced it will build a Salt Lake City, Utah-based regional operations hub that will be among the largest processing facilities in its global package network.

The $275 million project, 840,000 square-foot facility is expected to be completed in late 2018, and UPS said it will process 69,000 packages per hour in complementing its existing 200,000 square-foot Salt Lake City-based operations. And it added this is part of a series of capital investments UPS has rolled out over the last 24 months that are part of an effort to address planned package growth in the U.S.

“This new regional hub is one of our strategic initiatives to continue to build the long-term future of UPS,” said Mark Wallace, UPS senior vice president of global engineering and sustainability, in a statement. “Utah is the crossroads to serving the Western U.S., and the state-of-the-art automation technology being deployed will improve performance, increase capacity and create additional flexibility to handle the non-stop growth of e-commerce business in the region.”

A UPS spokesperson told LM that the company continue to experience growing package volume throughout the UPS global network, especially in residential deliveries, adding that this this new hub will increase UPS’s capacity and improve throughput as we continue to grow the business in the region, and throughout the country. 

“We are in the midst of a multi-year investment program to modernize major facilities and build new facilities when the need exists,” the spokesperson said. “All facilities receive ongoing investments in modernization, but this is among the largest facility projects announced to date.” 

The Salt Lake City facility will serve as a regional operations hub that handles sorting and processing of packages. And it will also include a package center to dispatch more than 285 trucks for local delivery and provide a UPS Customer Center for retail service. When it is fully operational, the spokesperson said the new facility will help UPS to more efficiently and flexibly process shipping volume.

UPS currently employs more than 3,500 workers across Utah in package, heavy freight and contract logistics operations, and the company’s footprint includes 24 operating facilities and 46 The UPS Store locations as independently-owned small businesses that are part of a franchise network.

The new regional operations hub will include more than 1,500 jobs aided by new technology and automation that increase the accuracy of data collection for reliability and processing flexibility as packages route through the complex system of conveyors and advance across a maze of belts. And it said that two automated processing areas will focus on smaller-sized packages, typical of today’s e-commerce purchases.   

“Utah is the crossroads to serving the Western U.S. and the area is well positioned for logistics growth,” the spokesperson said. “As a result of all of the company’s existing investments and operations in the area, coupled with excellent support from the State and City, it made good business sense to increase the company’s regional operations in this location.”