New Tullamarine facility is expected to accommodate Toll-Ipec's operations until 2032.
When it comes to tackling the unique urban freight challenge in Australia’s cities, general manager of Toll-Ipec’s network strategy Andrew Eastick takes on a common real estate mantra: it’s all about “location, location, location”.
For Toll-Ipec in Melbourne – that spells Tullamarine. Eastick told the Victorian Transport Association’s (VTA) Freight Outlook forum yesterday that the company will open a new distribution centre in the suburb, right by Melbourne Airport and competitors Star Track and Linfox, in November.
Toll-Ipec currently handles up to 90,000 items per day (during the Christmas peak period) with further growth expected as the business to consumer sales segment continues to expand.
Its present facilities are able to handle just 6,000 items per day, meaning some long nights and very little room to grow.
The new Tullamarine facility, by contrast, is designed to be grown into — with full capacity not expected to be reached until 2032.
Eastick says a lot of research, planning and data analysis went into the choice of location and the design of the distribution centre.
Toll-Ipec used GPS data from all of its trucks to pinpoint the most cost-effective suburb, taking both pick-up and delivery destinations into account.
While the more northern suburb of Epping offered the best property lease rates, these were balanced by the extra fuel and driving costs associated with being further away from the majority of customer locations, he says.
The new centre will have space for 220 vehicles, with 95 trailer bays in addition.
The internal design has been kept as simple as possible.
“It’s essentially a materials handling system with a roof on it,” Eastick says.