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Coronavirus: A look at the Post distribution center in Härkingen

25,000 parcels per hour: the heart of Swiss Post is in full swing

Because of the corona crisis, as many parcels are sent as usual only at Christmas. In Switzerland’s largest parcel center, 400 employees work almost around the clock. Despite this, the post hardly comes up.

Stefan Ehrbar / ch media

It’s quiet in the eye of the parcel tower. Only the treadmills can be heard in the Härkingen parcel center. Since the corona crisis broke out, people have stayed at home. The stores are closed, so they order food, clothing and electronics in the online shops (We also …).

Many of these packages will be on the treadmill in Härkingen at some point. It is up to 25,000 every hour, up to 370,000 a day, almost 30 percent more than before the virus broke out. Beat Lindegger, the deputy head of the parcel center, is not disturbed by this. “We have been coping well with the increase so far,” he says. But how long?

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In Härkingen, the largest of Swiss Post’s six parcel centers, almost everything is automated. Only two steps still require human labor: unloading the delivered packages from the containers and fine sorting before the packages leave the center. A single employee is responsible for about ten slides, in which four destinations are grouped together. The packages are automatically pushed off the treadmill as soon as they have reached their destination.

Personnel expansion is not possible

Maybe you could automate even more, says Lindegger. But at what price? «We give 400 people a job here. That also counts, »says Lindegger.

The question does not yet arise anyway: No machine does the two work steps as efficiently as humans. The new regional parcel centers in Cadenazzo and Ostermundigen, which Swiss Post recently opened, also need flesh and blood workers at these ends of the conveyor belt.

In contrast to machines, these can get sick. Lindegger is already struggling with absences. Employees who belong to the risk group or have to look after their children fail. In contrast to the Christmas season, when the parcel center can count on additional workers, only the core workforce remains.

«We have redesigned a lot to comply with the hygiene rules. The employees all work at great distances from one another. We have divided the breaks into a two-hour window so that the employees go in stages. We provide enough disinfectants. I am proud of the performance of the teams here in Härkingen, »says Lindegger.

The machines run between 6 a.m. and 2 a.m.

His employees now also work on Saturdays because the volume has increased so much. The first shift starts sorting every day between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., and employees go home between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Now there is a short break in the 20,000 square meter hall in the industrial area, right next to the A1 motorway. The evening shift comes between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. and sorts packages until 2 a.m. Then the machines stand still for three to four hours. The break is needed: maintenance work.

So far, the principle has been that every package that reaches Härkingen in the evening will be distributed the next day. In the crisis, this can no longer always be guaranteed. In most cases, it still works, says Lindegger. Only occasionally customers would have to wait longer. “The question is: how long will the parcel wave last?” If things go on like this for a long time, Swiss Post will “examine further measures.”

Swiss Post dominates the parcel market

Every morning, 100 parcel carriers leave Härkingen with their delivery trucks and distribute the parcels. At noon they come back and load their vehicles again. However, not all parcels are distributed directly from Härkingen. Others run the mail with trains and trucks in distribution centers, which take care of the fine distribution.

Parcels that are not delivered in the catchment area of ​​the Härkingen parcel center – that is around 40 percent – go to the responsible parcel center. 150 trucks leave Härkingen every day, but also 30 train compositions. Lindegger is proud of that. “No other post office in the world transports such a high proportion of parcels by rail with 60 percent,” he says. Economy packages all take the train, faster ones are transported by road.

“Sunday delivery becomes an issue again”

Swiss Post has been operating in the parcel sector in a liberalized market since 1997. Their share has been stable at around 75 percent for years. In the crisis, Swiss Post also has to make adjustments. It only transports parcels as bulky goods that an employee can carry on their own – to protect employees, as Swiss Post emphasizes.

A lot of bulky goods are currently being ordered, as Lindegger has found: garden furniture, TVs or bicycles. The affected dealers now have to send their goods as expensive general cargo.

Even if the order quantity is likely to decline one day, Lindegger will have more work to do in the coming years. “The quantities are steadily increasing,” he says. Swiss Post also has to fulfill more and more special requests: customers want to determine exactly when their parcel will arrive. Others want their parcels to be delivered to the office and Sunday delivery should also become an issue again, says Lindegger: “It’s a question of time.”

Until then, the employees coped with the parcel flood of the corona crisis. Her profile: «Physically well-off, no dyslexics, able to understand instructions and without criminal record». By the way, no one needs to be afraid of the postman even in the crisis, Lindegger assures: “So far, there is no evidence that packages can infect the virus.” (aargauerzeitung.ch)

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