UPS hub moves packages

Business

UPS hub moves packages

The UPS Worldport facility is all about one thing: planes. Not a single driver is employed by UPS Airlines, which makes its hub at Worldport. Almost 9 percent of UPS' domestic packages at some point hit a conveyor belt in Louisville. Worldport handles 1.2 million packages a night, which descend from eight types of cargo planes.

UPS Worldport handles 1.2 million packages a night, which descend from eight types of cargo planes.

The 580-acre hub is located between the two parallel runways of Louisville International Airport.

Tony Biller, a UPS front-line supervisor, checks arriving containers against his documents.

Biller pulls a "can" full of packages from a plane so it can be loaded onto a dolly and moved.

Production operator Margaret Jones makes customized shirts for CafePress.Com, which uses UPS to get its custom-made products to customers quickly.

CafePress.Com vice president of operations Bob Marino shows some of the wares the company makes.

By 2010, Worldport will have two new wings. All told, the facility will be able to handle 487,000 packages in 5.1 million square feet ⿿ the equivalent of more than 113 football fields.

Aircraft fueler Jason Key leaves the cockpit of a plane surrounded by packages.

The package sorting facility, at 120 acres, is just a smidge smaller than Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport's main terminal complex.

Napoleon Akayez unloads a bag from a UPS can.

Inside the sorting facility, Andrea Shirley put packages them inside the UPS cans, for shipment to another location. The miles of UPS conveyor belts are computer operated and automatically route packages to the correct plane for shipment.

Duran Drake places boxes onto a sorting conveyor belt. To get from inbound plane to connecting flight, 110 miles of conveyor belt take packages on a ride that would make Six Flags proud.

Christain Kocter (left) and Glasgow Woods move one of the cans toward the sorting facility. Almost 9 percent of UPS' domestic packages at some point hit a conveyor belt in Louisville.

An tug pulls an empty dolly to unload an incoming airplane in the early morning hours.

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UPS Worldport handles 1.2 million packages a night, which descend from eight types of cargo planes.

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