Where there is a shortage of conveyor, small loaders handle
In the new terminal, elevators are working, automatically lifting the load to the sorting line. For people, too, there are elevators. Getting around on your own here is generally difficult; in addition to the lifts, the workers have bicycles and scooters, on which they drive around the terminal.
A huge screen on which all information on DHL operations is displayed. In the upper right corner is the CNN channel: it was turned on there after the terrorist attacks in Brussels.
The buildings of the three sorting terminals do not have windows - only the ventilation system. But between the two of them there is a building with a huge window overlooking the airfield: the control room, here called the Network. From here, dispatchers manage all of DHL's operations in Europe, from sorting to managing the departure schedule. If there is bad weather or other problems at a transit airport through which the path of a cargo plane lies, then it is here that other options for the delivery of goods are thought out.
In the center of the hall hangs a huge scoreboard. It has an online map of the winds over the entire Earth and a map of the loading of aircraft in Leipzig. And on the top right screen always show news on CNN. Terrorist attacks and natural disasters can make a big difference on DHL routes, and after the company was the first to report explosions in Brussels, CNN news was shown on a 24/7 main monitor.
Summer weather
The DHL hub is not only a sorting line, but also airplanes. The company's management claims that Leipzig was chosen as a reference point, including because of the weather: it is almost always flying here, snowfall and fog are rare.
Here the aircraft are scheduled maintenance. The floor in the hangar is made warm so that people and cars do not freeze in winter. And in the summer, solar panels on the roof supply the hangar with energy to cool the equipment.
When we go in, in a huge hangar there is only one plane - a huge A300. He's on maintenance. Here, in Leipzig, 58 aircraft are constantly “registered”. Nineteen of them are big Boeing 757s and 777s, but there are also smaller capacity boards. Not all of them wear DHL yellow and red liveries, some are painted in the colors of partner companies. But all the planes that land and take off on the territory of the hub, transport parcels that are sorted at its terminals.
Along the perimeter of the hangar consumables and spare parts from all models of aircraft that arrive in the hub. The DHL team has only a few hours to unload the board, replace parts, inspect the aircraft, and load it to the top again, so the necessary parts are always at hand.
Early in the morning, workers finish loading the last one for a Boeing-747 shift.
The building of the hangar itself is a masterpiece of engineering. Its walls and roof are so light that they can fly away if a strong wind blows. Therefore, the supports, which in ordinary buildings support the roof, are designed to hold it in place. Rainwater is collected from the roof of the hangar, which is then used to service the terminals and the airport. There are also solar panels on the roof. The scanty sun of Germany, of course, makes it impossible to power all the equipment in the hangar from them, but in summer, in good weather, the energy of the solar panels goes to the cooling technology.
Poisons, explosives and radioactive materials - you can!
Here are loaded on board and leave things with him, for the transportation of which in a civilian airport may be asked to go to a separate room. Above the wide gate is a red neon inscription: DANGEROUS GOODS. Journalists are not invited there. In this warehouse, biologically active substances are waiting for loading - probes of drugs, fertilizers, raw materials for the chemical industry, biomaterials that need to be transported in containers cooled with dry ice, flammable and explosive substances, animals and even radioactive goods - consumables of complex medical equipment. Of course, a private person cannot send such a parcel - specialized companies operating under the appropriate licenses use services for the transport of dangerous goods.
In such a package, parcels grouped by destination and cargo characteristics are sent on board. The upper corners of the containers are cut to save space in the aircraft.
The most difficult logistic task that has to be solved at DHL is the problem of placing large boxes with parcels inside the aircraft. The parcels are placed in transparent boxes up to 2.5 meters high with cut corners, which a special lift brings to the ladder or directly to the hatch of the aircraft. Each time the placement of goods must be planned individually. Simple envelopes and uranium filled with MRI machines fly together, so you need to arrange the containers according to all the rules: everything that explodes or makes the Geiger counter squeak closer to the exit in order to evacuate with the slightest problems. All other goods - in the depth of the cabin. In contrast to the sorting of cargo within the terminal, the placement of containers on board a computer is not trusted. Here people decide everything.
The package, which was accepted, for example, in the DHL branch on Tverskaya-Yamskaya, will go to one of two Moscow stations, and from there to Sheremetyevo, where it will be loaded onto a flight to Leipzig. The workers will open a transparent container, take out the parcel and send it on a journey through the conveyor, which will carry it to the desired exit. Everything will happen quickly: a trip to New York will take only a day, the road to places with less developed infrastructure (for example, to Ethiopia or Panama) - up to a week. Leipzig is a short stopover on the way of any cargo, the way of which lies through Europe.
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