Article – 1st place winner in the 4th edition of the “Pen of the Logistician” competition.
Additionally, there were so-called sector distribution centers, covering the area of several current counties (meaning several such distribution centers were assigned to a hub). Sector distribution centers simultaneously performed the same tasks as hubs, and as a result, the shipment transmission chain included an additional link that lengthened the entire process. Therefore, this unnecessary link was eliminated, and the process of gradually minimizing the hubs themselves was initiated. The categorization of shipments implemented in 2002 (letters) and 2003 (parcels), which involved diversifying them based on delivery standard (priority, economy, and uncategorized), entailed another very important decision in the process of modernizing the Poczta Polska logistics network. This step was the resignation from sorting shipments in mail cars and replacing this technology with their constant exchange between hubs (on an “all-to-all” basis), and above all, the concentration and deconcentration of loads in the hubs.
The current model of the Poczta Polska logistics network is consequently a distributed model with a predominance of several hubs, which are connected via public airports located near them by corridors used for air transport. These are: hubs in Warsaw (Okęcie), Poznań (Ławica), Szczecin (Goleniów), Gdańsk (Rębiechowo), Bydgoszcz (Szwederowo), Rzeszów (Jasionka), Kraków (Balice), Katowice (Pyrzowice), and Wrocław (Strachowice). The remaining largest hubs, not directly included in air transport, transport cargo by land to the appropriate airport (e.g., Białystok, Olsztyn, Lublin, or Kielce transport them to Okęcie). A leading role in this model is played by the airport in Warsaw, where all these corridors converge, and thanks to this, loads transported along individual routes are mixed.
As for land cargo transport, some of the hubs serve as main transshipment points for inter-hub routes (the most important of these points are located centrally in the network, including: Warsaw, Łódź, Poznań, and Bydgoszcz). In these points, the actual concentration of loads, the completion of larger batches, and the further transfer of loads originating from hubs located at the edges of the network (e.g., Chełm, Białystok, Szczecin, or Zielona Góra) take place. Loads travel a similar path on the “inbound” route to hubs located at the edges of the network. These loads reach these hubs also via transshipment points, where the deconcentration of loads originating from various inter-hub routes and their decomposition into smaller batches have already taken place. Such a layout of cargo flows, based on their (de)concentration in the largest hubs, aims to eliminate long-distance connections, which are not always optimal from the point of view of the variation in the quantity of loads flowing in given relations.
The railway network now has only a residual share in the overall transport service of Poczta Polska and is based on a few long-distance direct relations between the most distant hubs.
On the other hand, one of the several concepts of the future Poczta Polska logistics network considered initially assumed only 17 hubs, including 14 fully automated EDCs (Expedition and Distribution Centers). Those in Warsaw and Poznań (already operating, built from scratch), Łódź and Kraków (currently being modernized based on existing hubs), Gdańsk, Bydgoszcz, Wrocław, and Katowice were to form the core of this network. The remaining EDCs, being hubs of a smaller category, were to be located in Kielce, Lublin, Rzeszów, Białystok, Olsztyn, and Szczecin. It was also assumed that 3 additional priority shipment sorting points would operate in Zielona Góra, Koszalin, and Opole.