UPS rolls out plans to build new package operations center in Dallas-Fort Worth area

With an eye on boosting its presence in North Texas, UPS this week announced its plans to build a $200 million package operations facility in Arlington, Texas.

The facility, which is expected to be completed in late 2018, will be comprised of more than 1,100,000 square-feet on more than 110 acres and will create even more network efficiency and flexibility to manage business and consumer-directed package growth for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, UPS said.

“We continue to experience growing package volume throughout the UPS global network, especially in residential deliveries,” a UPS spokesperson told LM. “UPS has seen greater demand for our services in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex as it continues to be an area of expansion for both residential and commercial deliveries. 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. The $200 million Arlington project joins other significant capital investments announced over the past 24 months focused on new construction combined with modernization and expansion of top tier UPS hubs in the U.S. to address planned growth.”

In terms of the main benefits of this facility for UPS customers, the spokesperson noted that the new facility is designed to provide additional capacity and handling for overall package volume throughout the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area and the North Texas region.

“This is permanent capacity to process ongoing package volume in our normal business operations,” she said. “When it is fully operational, the new facility will help UPS to more efficiently process its regular and expanded holiday shipping volume.”

While the Arlington facility design is being finalized, the spokesperson said it will be powered by the latest “smart” operational technology systems that increase the accuracy of data collection, which in turn improves reliability and processing flexibility as packages route through the complex system of conveyors and advance across a maze of belts, ensuring they are loaded into the correct outbound vehicles more efficiently. And she added there will also be processing areas with a focus on smaller-sized packages, typical of today’s e-commerce purchases. Around 1,400 full-time equivalent jobs will be supported by these smart operational technology systems.

This expansion further widens UPS’s reach in the DFW area, with the company already operating eight package delivery facilities there.

As far as the biggest competitive advantages of this new facility from a UPS perspective, the spokesperson explained how the additional capacity powered by UPS’s leading operational technology of the new Arlington hub creates even greater connectedness to the UPS network in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that includes the existing eight UPS package delivery facilities, an air gateway, ground freight, and supply chain logistics centers including healthcare logistics, as well as The UPS Store and UPS Access Point locations throughout the Metroplex.