FedEx expanding home delivery infrastructure

As part of a $1.8 billion expansion of its U.S. delivery network, FedEx Corp. says it will open three of nine planned distribution hubs this year, bringing its total number of hubs to 39. In addition, a new home-delivery facility planned for Florida will be able to process more than 10,000 packages per hour.

The three hubs that will open later this year are being built in Dallas, Cincinnati and Hagerstown, MD. A fourth already under construction is due to open next year in Memphis, TN. The hub expansion project, which will also expand the 30 existing hubs, will nearly double the company’s average daily hub package volume capacity by the end of its 2010 fiscal year, FedEx said.

The expansion project will support a sharp growth in FedEx’s shipments to consumers on behalf of online retailers, a spokesman says. He was unable to provide actual growth figures in shipments for online retailers.

The new Florida satellite distribution center, in Pompano Beach near Fort Lauderdale, will be three times the size of the two existing facilities combined, and will open with a workforce of approximately 356 employees and independent contractors, an increase from the current combined figure of 200 employees and independent contractors, FedEx said.