There is just no escaping those lovely Minions, is there? This year, our little yellow friends are lending a helping hand in the sorting and delivery of the millions, if not billions, of packages that are the result of the Double-11 Shopping Festival.
Just as in western countries, whereby November sees the Christmas decorations and promotions start to appear, and shops begin their “new year” sales, so it is with China. With shipment volumes rising steadily for much of the last month ahead of Double 11, Nanjing’s postal services have been utilising a fleet of Minions in its sorting operations.
The Minions, known by their abbreviated form, AGV, are Automated Guided Vehicles that are taking the brunt of the work in sorting packages in the 1,500 square-metre Nanjing Post Central Bureau. 350 of the little devils are hard at work therein; they each do a 4-hour shift and then charge/rest for just 5 minutes. The team can handle 12,000 packages per hour.
Thanks to the Yangtze Evening News, we can see the Minions in action for ourselves via this link.
With the aim of achieving next-day delivery in 52 key cities across the country, the Minions are fulfilling a vital role. It is a vast concerted effort, assisted by personnel, location and vehicular reserves; more than 500 temporary employees, 120 vehicles (including new-energy vehicles) and nearly 8,000 square metres of processing centres/warehouses in Nanjing alone have been leased to effectively supplement production and processing capacity.
The Double-11 Shopping Festival is still 5 days away, but shipment volumes in the Nanjing’s Post Office are already that of the 2018 peak. Just as well there is always a Minion around when you need one.
