Greater Louisville features a comprehensive logistical infrastructure that includes both material resources and programs to develop a skilled and experienced workforce.
 

•  Location, location, location: With one-day shipping access to 60 percent of the country’s population, Louisville is in an extremely strategic location for distribution.
•  A shipper distributing to multiple cities could find the overall transportation cost to be less from Louisville than many other origins when considering volume, rates and distance combined.
•  Utility costs are below the median for comparable markets and financial incentive programs are very competitive with neighboring states.
•  Logistics-related tax rates (diesel fuel, gas, inventory and personal property taxes) are extremely reasonable.
•  Residents of Greater Louisville enjoy an exceptional lifestyle – with a mild climate, affordable housing options, a thriving business community, outstanding arts and entertainment, varied outdoor recreation opportunities, top-quality educational choices and some.
  

Strengths

In addition to a naturally centralized location, it’s been said that the Louisville region’s logistical strength has evolved and continues to thrive through the development of 6 Rs: River, Roadways, Railways, Runways, Routers and Real Estate.

RIVER – Two public inland ports and 48 private terminals on the Ohio River provide a competitive advantage in handling bulk products with access on the U.S. inland waterway system from the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Gulf of Mexico.

ROADWAYS – The highway system in Greater Louisville provides one-day access to well over 60 percent of the major domestic markets via Interstates I-65, I-64, and I-71. In addition, a secondary road network provides convenient ingress and egress to the major interstate highways.

RAILWAYS  – Greater Louisville is served by three Class I railroads: Canadian Pacific (CP), CSX and Norfolk Southern (NS). Both CSX and NS railroads provide Louisville with direct rail service to all markets east of the Mississippi River as well as connecting service to the West Coast. The city is also one of four regional hubs for CSX.

RUNWAYS – Louisville International Airport provides dependable service to numerous international and domestic gateways and, thanks to the recent $1 billion UPS  investment in expanding Worldport to 5.2 million square feet, Louisville has 253 in-bound and out-bound UPS flights a day.
Routers
Kentucky has developed the “Kentucky Information Highway (KIH)” – a public/private partnership between state government and local exchange carriers – a 99 percent digital network for high-speed, high-capacity voice, data and video images integrating fiber optic, wireless radio, digital microwave and satellite technologies into a sophisticated communications and information network.

REAL ESTATE – Greater Louisville has a very competitive cost per square foot for bulk distribution space greater than 100,000 sq. ft and the area has over 95 million square feet of Class A distribution space.
 
UPS WORLDPORT – Worldport is the largest fully automated package handling facility in the world. The operation currently turns over 130 aircraft daily, processing an average of 1.2 million packages a day with a record 2.5 million packages processed on Peak Day 2009.

The expansion more than doubled the size of the air hub and increased sort capacity from 215,000 packages per hour to 304,000. Dubbed Worldport upon its 2002 completion, the facility initially grew from about 2 million square feet to 4 million.

Since UPS established its Worldport Hub in Louisville over 130 companies have made Louisville their home to be at the 'end of the UPS runway'. Recognizable brand names include Ann Taylor, Zappos.com, J&J Pharmaceuticals, Amgen and GSI Commerce.

Looking to future possibilities, the facility’s design allows for further expansion to process up to a half million packages per hour.

WORLDPORT FEATURES
• High-speed conveyors and “smart labels” read by overhead cameras facilitate the processing of documents, small packages and irregular-sized shipments.
• Automated equipment and overall process improvements reduce the amount of time employees spend lifting and lowering packages while reducing the average package cycle-sorting span.
• Newly developed IT systems rapidly transmit Customs information to expedite the movement of international shipments.
• Specially designed docks and hub floors let workers move package containers easily from one area of the building to another.
• The new expansion plans included two new aircraft load/unload “wings” and associated aircraft staging ramps. Additional ramp space accommodates the new 747-400 cargo planes.
• UPS also approved plans to build a new vehicle loading facility for its ground delivery network serving Louisville.

• Like the initial Worldport construction project, UPS exceeded its goal to award at least 20 percent of the latest expansion project’s general construction and site work budget to minority- and women-owned businesses during expansion.
• Metropolitan College will continue to play a major role in helping attract and maintain
• employees for the expanded hub.