MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio — Thousands of packages were sorted onto a conveyor belt and into the backs of trucks at DHL’s facility in Middleburg Heights Wednesday morning. At around 11:30 a.m., 40 fully loaded trucks hit the roads, each making roughly 50 stops and delivering around 3,000 packages.
"We’re in the heart of peak season for our deliveries,” said Sean Hayes, area operations manager at DHL. “The next 10 days will be our busiest of the year, where we expect to be about 15% up over Christmas of last year.”
That 15% increase is yet another boost from previous numbers. Hayes said last year during the pandemic, DHL saw 20% growth in shipments. During the holiday season last year, there was additional growth of 15%.
The growth is attributed to the increase in shipping and online shopping during the pandemic.
“Our facilities - we just expanded this one two years ago and we’re already close to maximum capacity where we were planning to be on a five to seven year plan to stay in this location,” Hayes said. “Right now in the past 18 to 24 months, we’ve already used up all the resources that we have in this location. We’re seeing that across the U.S. for DHL, that we have to go back and rethink how we’re setting up our operations due to the growth that we’ve seen over the last few years.”
Jim Vodan is a courier with DHL. He’s been working there for 34 years.
“It’s been real busy,” Vodan said. “Every year it gets more and more, more freight, more online.”
Vodan has been busy driving his routes in the Parma area, and said through the years, he’s seen an increase in online shopping, especially over the course of the pandemic.
“Post office, UPS, we’re all running like crazy right now because everything’s all online,” he said. “It’s so much easier to hit a button and order something online than it is to actually go to a store and take the chance on getting something.”
Couriers are on the road six days a week right up until Christmas Eve to get packages where they’re going. Luckily, this year Vodan said customers have been kind.
“Just a lot more freight, but the thing is customers out there are a lot more thankful now," he said. "They realize how tough it is for this job and all that, but they’re really great customers out there, you just want to satisfy the customer, it’s what you want to do.”
Hayes said shipping deadlines for DHL are likely different than those at UPS or USPS because of the international nature of their business. However, he said to be safe, shipments should go out by Friday, Dec. 17 to make it to their destinations on time.
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