A new ultra-modern site to adapt to the growth of e-commerce, and just before the end-of-year holiday season. La Poste has just opened a new Colissimo platform in Cadaujac, south of Bordeaux, equipped with a latest generation sorter capable of sorting an average of 19,000 parcels per hour, almost twice as many as older generation sorters.
With an area of 22,500 m2, this mixed platform (sorting and delivery) processes parcels for all of France from this site, and organizes delivery for the South-West part. It will gradually replace the aging Bègles sorting center, which will permanently close its doors in March 2024.
This is the seventh new generation Colissimo platform for La Poste, which has 19 platforms in France. These are starting to run at full speed in preparation for the delivery of packages for the end-of-year holidays, called the “peak period”. This started at the end of November for “Black Friday”, and will last until December 24.
“We are going to build a crescendo until Christmas”
La Poste plans to deliver nearly 106 million Colissimo parcels nationally this year during this crucial period, a figure up 6% compared to 2022. This represents around a quarter of the year’s volumes. “We are going to ramp up until Christmas,” confirms Yann Briand, director of the Cadaujac platform. During this period, we are doubling our volume on this site, to reach up to 180,000 packages per day. Today [mercredi] for example, we made 120,000 packages here and 150,000 on the Bègles platform which is still active, i.e. 270,000 in total, a figure never reached on the Bordeaux plate. »
The last record for the Bordeaux plate was “254,632 packages exactly, reached on December 12, 2022”, specifies Jean-Luc Bourdiol, production manager. A record which should be shattered this year, since the two managers expect to reach 320,000 packages in one day (cumulatively in Cadaujac and Bègles) during the month of December.
Two days promise to be “particularly intense”, announces Yann Briand: “December 12 and 19, when we should deliver around 3.2 million packages throughout France, compared to an average of 2 million packages per day during the “peak period”. In Cadaujac, we will probably exceed 180,000 packages these two days. » To cope with this influx, the workforce is doubled during the month of December, “and we are increasing the time slots, by starting earlier in the day, for example”, adds Jean-Luc Bourdiol, knowing that the platform is running at full capacity. ‘ordinary especially in the evening and at night.
“For four or five years, growth in the parcel sector has been steady, with large customers in particular calling on us more and more,” continues Jean-Luc Bourdiol. Growth which can be explained by the development of e-commerce and “out of home”, including sales on second-hand markets such as Vinted.
Twenty-four hour delivery on the rise
The other particularity of this Cadaujac platform is that it includes a parcel delivery agency. “We have 60 delivery rounds starting from this platform which will deliver packages throughout the south of Bordeaux and New Aquitaine, which represents an average of 7,000 packages per day,” explains Yann Briand. During the “peak period”, we will increase up to 15,000 packages per day which will be delivered from this site. » This allows La Poste to improve on delivery within twenty-four hours, now effective for more than 30% of volumes distributed by Colissimo. The objective is also to limit the trips of delivery vans.
The loading of heavy goods vehicles which transport the packages to the platform, and which collect those which will then be distributed to other platforms throughout the rest of France, is increasingly optimized. “Between swap bodies (which maximize carrying capacity) and the so-called stored bulk method (stacking packages in trailers), we maximize our transport capacities,” confirms Yann Briand. This allowed La Poste to avoid 30 million kilometers between 2022 and 2023. For these months of November and December, “a reduction of 800,000 km compared to the same period last year” is expected, announces La Poste.