UPS Inc. said that it opened its C$30 million Calgary, Alberta, truck and air hub on Feb. 22, completing a consolidation project begun in June 2008.
The company merged three facilities in the metropolitan area into one 150,000-square-foot hub near Calgary International Airport. A UPS spokeswoman said processing capacity has jumped to 7,000 packages an hour from 3,000.
The hub also will be the home base for 157 regional distribution trucks, the shipper said in the statement. UPS operates three other Canadian air hubs in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, said company spokeswoman Cristina Falcone.
The Calgary hub, part of YYC Global Logistics Park, is the largest UPS hub by square footage, and the Hamilton hub is the largest by shipping volume. YYC is the Calgary airport’s three-letter international code.
Falcone said Calgary is Canada’s fifth-most populous city and its economy has done well, in spite of the recession, because of provincial tar sands petroleum deposits.
“This hub will help Calgary business meet the world,” Falcone said. The UPS Calgary hub also will handle conventional airfreight, although the transportation of packages is expected to dominate. She said the hub will employ about 460 people.
Separately, UPS said on Feb. 23 that it has donated some of its bar code technology to the Salvation Army for its relief work in Haiti.
The Salvation Army staff will be able to confirm the goods families receive by tracking the information embedded in laminated cards that bear unique bar codes tied to the number of family members, their location in a relief camp and their needs, UPS said in a statement.
Based on UPS’ Trackpad technology, the system helps to ensure that all families receive the right supplies at the right time, the statement said.
