Jeremy Fugleberg

jfugleberg@enquirer.com

HEBRON - It’s midnight, but the main part of the workday is just beginning at the DHL package handling mega-hub, located at the south end of Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport.

The hub is just one of three the company has in the world, crucial centers of activity that keep DHL’s network hustling. The hub is most busy at night, but the work never stops.

“It’s a beehive,” said Verena Gross, a DHL spokeswoman. “Always buzzing.”

Overnight the hub hosts a giant ballet of packages, machinery, airplanes and people. On this night, 45 aircraft will land at the hub, disgorging thousands of boxes and pieces of mail bound for destinations all over the world. Approximately 1,000 workers unload the packages, which flow into the hub for sorting and redirecting.

Tonight the hub will handle about 175,000-180,000 pieces of packages and mail. Packages flow past scanners and the watchful eyes of the hub's employees, flying down chutes and tilting off conveyer belts toward the next step in their journeys. Those that need help with their labels get sidetracked to “hospitals” where workers give them special attention.

DHL has poured about $176 million into the 12-year-old hub in recent years, expanding it and adding to its capacity. The company is currently adding a new ramp to handle additional “big birds” – such as the massive Boeing 747-8 – and adding additional sorting and storage capacity, a $108 million investment. The expansion should be ready by September, the start of peak season in the package business.

Most of the aircraft, refueled, re-crewed and reloaded, will leave before sunrise. The vast majority of them will leave between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., taking off in short intervals, winging packages and mail to their next stop. Some might go cross country. Others, the other side of the globe. Just another night's work at DHL's mega-hub.

DHL international mega-hub

Opened: August 2003

Site size: 181 acres

Handles: 80 planes a day

Sorts, ships: 108,000 an hour, approximately 160,000 a day

Employs: 2,400 – about 1,000 handle packages overnight

Latest investment: $108 million for a new ramp, sorting, storage facilities