Innovative Ideas for Expansion
When worldwide parcel delivery firm DPD contacted Sovex they were in need of state-of-the-art equipment to install in their Oldbury distribution hub as part of a major expansion programme. DPD wanted to increase their parcel sorting capacity to over half a million packages every night, with direct nightly connections to 23 European countries. To achieve this they needed flexible and reliable material handling machinery.
DPD needed to unload large 13.5m trailers while at the same time servicing a high volume of much smaller collection and delivery vans. Previously they had used different boom conveyors for different size vehicles requiring the use of numerous loading docks. This led to the need for more operators to service all the docks and a longer vehicle turnaround time. The challenge set for Sovex was to produce a single vehicle loading system that could load and unload any height and length of lorry or van.
Sovex engineers set to work to come up with an innovative solution to this problem, and thus the new Bendy Boom was born. This is now one of our most popular conveyor systems due to its flexibility.
The Sovex Solution
Sovex designed the Bendy Boom to extend to 15m enabling it to load and unload the longest of DPD’s trailers while at the same time being able to service the smaller collection and delivery vans. This massively increased the throughput of parcels into the hub and ensured that DPD could meet their next day delivery promise to their clients. In addition, DPD are no longer constrained by what size and height of vehicle they can use, and their operators have benefited from more adaptable and user friendly loading conditions.
New product development such as the Bendy Boom is fundamental to what we do at Sovex. It enables us to ensure we always push the boundaries in technological advancement and always meet the needs of our clients.
“The Bendy Booms are now a part of everyday life at Oldbury and our operators frequently question how we got by without them before. We’ll certainly be considering them for our future operations and look forward to working with Sovex again”.
Mark Wilkes, Director of Technical Services, DPD UK
