The 65,000 square ft facility, located at Warrington close to Junction 21 of the M6, boosts Amtrak's national capacity and will handle up to an extra 25,000 parcels per night; parcels destined for the North West of England and Scotland.

The new hub, which is providing employment for up to 100 new staff, has been specially designed to handle fragile items using state-of-the-art wireless technology. Handheld scanners allow rapid throughput of parcels hand loaded onto a 70 metre carousel parcel sorter.

Over 40 Amtrak articulated trunk vehicles bring parcels from depots within the local catchment area, which are sorted overnight for next day local and national distribution. The national traffic is transferred to Amtrak's main site at Aldridge in the West Midlands and the vehicles return to Warrington with traffic for local delivery.

Amtrak has seen nightly volumes rise following the integration of Nightspeed; another parcel carrier that Amtrak acquired last year. The Warrington hub is also taking on Scottish consignments that will provide a significant reduction in driver hours required for Scottish trunk vehicles in line with Working Time Directive.

Amtrak carries an increasing amount of delicate goods such as wine, flowers and electrical products. Wireless bar code scanners, terminals and printers allow special handling to protect items during the sorting process.

The Warrington facility, which benefits from a large secure yard area and 13 large doors, is ideally located with connection to Scotland to the north via the M6 and southwards to Aldridge again using the M6 motorway. Additionally there are links to Liverpool to the West and Leeds and the East coast via the M62.