Some two years after introducing robotic parcel sortation technology at its sorting center in Athens, Hellenic Post (ELTA), the state-owned provider of postal services in Greece, has introduced additional robots, chutes, and induction stations at the site.

The investment means throughput capacity at the Athens facility has been significantly increased and allows ELTA to provide next-day delivery services to several additional destinations throughout Greece.

In all a total of 120 autonomous mobile robots (AMR) are now deployed at the sorting center in Athens. They scan each parcel’s barcode, weigh the package and, directed by sensors, empty it into the appropriate mail sack sited around the platform on which the robots travel.

Initially introduced as part of ELTA’s digital restructuring program which was established to tackle the growing number of parcels generated by the growth of online shopping, the AMR-based sortation solution has enabled ELTA to improve the efficiency of its workforce by assigning personnel to more productive tasks.

Before the sorting system went live, ELTA had undertaken parcel sorting manually – which was obviously extremely time consuming and labour intensive. It was also prone to errors which caused parcels to be delayed. Late deliveries were not only frustrating for ELTA’s customers and courier partners but also extremely costly for the company.

Since the parcel sorting function has been handed over to the robots the process is three times faster, ensuring next-day delivery, while errors have been virtually eliminated.

With the additional robots, ELTA can now handle close to 125,000 parcels weighing up to 10 kg every day and, because each robot only needs to be recharged for five minutes every four hours, on-site power consumption and energy costs are minimized.

Based on the performance of the first phase of the installation ELTA expects this latest investment to pay for itself within two years.