Robots support sorting at the “Flex” RPC in Basel

Until now, all parcels in Basel were pre-sorted by hand before being transferred to the Härkingen parcel center for further processing. Since the Flex RPC started operations in August 2021, a new robot sorting technology has taken over manual pre-sorting for all consignments. 28 self-driving vehicles, known as automated guided vehicles, move along a predefined route and drop their parcels at specified end points, allowing sorting of up to 35,000 consignments per day. 

More sorting capacity in less space

To increase capacity in parcel processing, Swiss Post is testing multi-floor system solutions that save production space and achieve more sorting capacity at small locations. Bulk processing, which is used at the Pratteln RPC, is another forward-looking technology. While most parcels today are unloaded manually and individually using space-intensive input lines with belt conveyors, consignments in bulk processing are unloaded en masse in roll boxes or swap bodies. This not only saves time, it also requires fewer gates and less space.