Against a backdrop of increasing international trading, DHL Express France is investing in its Beaune and Caen depots to help maintain its high-quality service. In support of this initiative, Actemium Lyon Logistics installed an automated solution combining technical expertise and innovation.  

The comprehensive solution at each site handles package sorting, distribution and collection for their respective regions, with a processing capacity of more than 3,000 packages an hour. The equipment installed makes it possible to unload packages up to 1.2 metres long from trucks arriving from the nearby airport and transfer them to conveyors, where they are identified, measured, weighed and sorted using a system made up of electric deflectors. These guide the packages into different “fingers”, from where drivers collect them for their local rounds. The process is reversible: at the end of the day, drivers drop off the packages they have collected from customers, which are then sorted and despatched to the airport. 

At the DHL Express depot in Caen, Actemium Lyon Logistics met a customer request to help drivers identify packages assigned to their respective delivery routes with an intelligent visual system.  This Active Picking Solution, or APS, identifies the routing and final destination for each package, and displays this information on large screens in the loading area. The drivers can view a package’s location, number and time to arrival, plus a colour coding indicating its destination dock. This solution also tells the drivers whether or not to pick up each package circulating and shows the arrival time of the next parcel assigned to them.