Lancaster, NY (WIVB) — While holiday shoppers are in a rush, so are the workers tasked with filling those orders. And with another winter rampage looming, Amazon’s Lancaster sorting center kicked into gear.
As soon as an Amazon employee walks through the turnstile, time is running out. About 1,200 people work at Amazon’s Lancaster parcel sorting facility.
Operations Manager Benji Croom says this is known as the “middle mile.”
“They go to the fulfillment center and click a button to order,” says Croom. “They put it in a box and then they came to me.”
During the busy holiday season, this huge warehouse sorts 300,000 packages every day.
Packages are unloaded from trucks, placed on conveyor belts, run through a maze of slides, sorted and sent to delivery stations. Holiday shopping required even more resources to make it happen.
“People are ordering for Christmas, so we’ll have more,” added Croom. “So we need more people and more shifts to be able to accommodate all these packages.”
That winter storm last month put the brakes on operations when a commercial truck ban was imposed. Operations are stepping up due to the possibility of a historic storm later this week.
“We have raised our expected trading volume today and tomorrow,” Croom said. “I asked for more because I know there is an impact. I don’t know the extent yet.”
Over 340,000 packages are sorted per day before the storm. If you haven’t ordered your gift last minute, do so now.
For last-minute holiday shoppers, Amazon can deliver certain items in one day. And this facility is still hiring, especially when all the Christmas returns start to come in.
Patrick Ryan is an award-winning reporter and has been part of the News 4 team since 2020. See here for more information on his work. When follow him on twitter.
