Yodel has invested more than £1 million in a new sortation system which has been specifically designed to handle delicate and irregularly shaped parcels.
The new system, called ‘Merlin2’, will be located at Yodel’s Shaw sorting centre and is the business’ second automated ‘out of gauge’ sortation facility, following the success of the original Merlin which was introduced in Wednesbury in 2019.
The original system is capable of processing up to 2,900 one-metre-long items per hour, and will work alongside the larger fully automated sortation system at Shaw. Merlin2 is capable of handling items up to 1.8m long and 0.9m wide and will help to increase speed and efficiency.
Goods that previously had to be manually sorted will now be automatically scanned, weighed, and photographed.
The system was created in order to keep up with increasing customer demand for online orders of strangely shaped items.
Carl Moore, COO Yodel said: “Increasing visibility across our sorting process reduces opportunities for parcels to be misplaced and means packages can travel from our clients and to consumers much faster, meeting the greater demand for a more seamless service.
“The system’s design also makes for a safer work environment for our colleagues by reducing the physical demands of the work at our sort centres and reducing the risk of strain and injury.”
Mike Hancox, CEO, Yodel added: “Yodel has seen dramatic growth alongside much of the sector in the last year and a half. Expanding the Merlin system to more sort centres allows us to continue responding to the demands of the growing online retail market. By increasing visibility across our sorting process, we can strengthen Yodel’s position as the parcel carrier of choice.”
