Ahlhorn – 285 meters long, 150 meters wide, four floors and 24.5 meters high, 52,000 square meters of floor space, ten kilometers of transportation technology, and a roof equipped with 3,400 square meters of photovoltaic systems – the massive building represents a huge success for the municipality of Grossenkneten. But could Amazon’s new logistics hub at the Metropolpark cause a whole host of problems?
Municipal council members, among others, wanted to know. Late Tuesday afternoon, the company first reported to the press about its plans (informed us). Prior to the complex tour, which had not yet taken place, there was a non-public media event of over an hour for council members. by group visitors on A path through the concrete giant However, safety was the number one priority: the construction site could only be entered following instructions and only with safety shoes, a high-visibility jacket, a construction helmet and a walkie-talkie.
Not only are the dimensions of the building colossal, but also other key data: 1000 employees They will be employed there from next year, said press spokesperson Thomas Schwindthhammer, who showed visitors around the site. About 900 of them are for cargo handling alone. Tens of thousands of items, about 15 to 16 million parts in total, will then be stored at Ahlhorn and prepared for shipment. One of the questions was where does Amazon want to recruit so many people. Schwindthammer reports that Amazon has already contacted employment agencies in the area. In addition to various marketing measures, a “Placement office” open. By his calculations, the group’s wages are attractive: Amazon will pay its logistics employees €12.50 an hour – “rather more”. These are employed directly by the Centre. After two years of employment, there will be 2,800 euros on the payroll. This is a good income for an unskilled worker. There will also be Amazon stock, bonuses, and pension plans. The center must Six days a week, 24 hours a day in three shifts to be in operation.
Employees no longer have to walk through the huge warehouse to store and remove individual items: instead, they wait at stationary stations for mobile robots to bring the shelves with the items to them. Miles of footpaths wiped out.
Long distances should also be almost for the day 120 to 130 trucks (maximum 200 to 250 at peak times at the end of the year) who deliver the goods to be stocked and then take the packed parcels to a distribution center (eg in Cloppenburg). According to Schwindthammer, Amazon doesn’t want cars to drive “through villages.” However, the location near the A1 motorway is actually very good, and talks are also underway with the municipality. He declared that if disabilities persist, they can be reported by residents so that problems can be eliminated. In addition, the individual traffic of employees must also be reduced. Talks have already been held with operators Public transport Given so that they can be combined. If that doesn’t work, they can too Shuttle bus come into use. The center also wants to offer its employees a 50-euro business ticket. There will be 826 parking spaces, 80 of them with electronic charging stations.
Finally, trade taxes were an important issue for society: the logistics center would operate as a “limited liability company,” Schwindhammer concluded. And so on trade tax in Grossenkneten municipality.
