UPS announces facility expansion in Tennessee

Atlanta-based transportation and logistics bellwether announced today that it has completed the multi-phased expansion of its Whitescreek, Tenn.-based ground package sortation and distribution facility.

UPS officials said that this effort has resulted in more than 300 new full- and part-time jobs to the region, and they added that both Tennessee-based businesses and consumers will see benefits from the facility’s expanded sortation and distribution facility’s improvements in speed, efficiency, and reliability.

This facility is comprised of highly automated equipment that UPS said rapidly moves packages through the scanning and sorting process while capturing data to increase delivery accuracy. What’s more, UPS said this facility is part of a multi-year strategic investment plan to grow UPS’s global smart logistics network.  It also noted that in serving as a transfer point for tractor-trailers moving packages to destinations beyond Tennessee, the facility also provides pickup and delivery service for customers in Nashville and the surrounding counties.  

“UPS is transforming our operations to provide innovative solutions that serve the changing needs of small, medium and large businesses. Doubling our Whitescreek hub’s size and capacity, and powering it with UPS’s advanced technology help enable our customers to grow their business,” said Cher Porties, president of UPS’s Mid-South District, in a statement.  “We are excited to generate new jobs and further contribute to Nashville and Middle Tennessee’s rapid growth.”

A UPS spokesperson told LM that a major driver for the company to expand this facility was due to how UPS continues to experience growing package volume throughout the UPS global network.

“The UPS Whitescreek sortation hub and package distribution facility expansion is designed to provide additional capacity and handling for overall package volume throughout the Nashville area and the state of Tennessee,” she said. “As a result of UPS’s existing investments and operations in the greater Nashville area, coupled with support from the city, county and state, it made good business sense to expand operations in this location.”

As for the primary customer benefits, this facility expansion provides, she explained that it goes back to UPS being the e-commerce provider of choice, adding that UPS is building innovative solutions and partnering with e-commerce leaders to serve small, medium and large businesses around the world.    

“Besides having a significantly higher package processing capacity, the data-driven, advanced operations technology deployed as part of the Whitescreek facility expansion increases the speed and flexibility of how packages flow through the UPS network, from dock to doorstep,” she said. “Businesses and customers in the greater Nashville area can count on UPS to get deliver their packages when where they want with even more reliability.”   

From a competitive perspective, for UPS, the spokesperson said that Whitescreek, Tenn. continues to be well positioned for logistics growth with airport access and connectivity to major transportation corridors across the greater Nashville area and the state.

“Also, people often focus on the operations technologies they can see in our sorting facilities, but it’s the technologies they can’t see - like our Network Planning Tool (NPT) and UPSNav - that are allowing UPS to leap ahead of our competitors when it comes to creating a predictive network that provides unmatched visibility to our operations and control for our customers,” she said.