At a Glance
- Operation
- Mostly overnight transhipment (01:00–05:00)
- Capacity
- Up to 500,000 consignments/night (major hubs)
- Storage
- None – purely a transhipment facility
How does a hub work?
Consignments from various regions (the spokes) are delivered to the hub overnight, sorted automatically and loaded onto outbound vehicles for other regions. This process – also known as cross-docking – runs to a tight schedule in narrow time windows. A high-performance hub can process several hundred thousand consignments a night.
Hub-and-spoke vs point-to-point
In the hub-and-spoke system all connections run via the central hub – economical and efficient where there are many customers and destinations. In a point-to-point network, direct connections operate without a hub – faster, but only economical where there is sufficient volume. Direct runs at NexCargo are an example of point-to-point transport.
Regional hubs and gateways
Alongside national main hubs, large forwarders operate regional depots that act as sub-hubs. Consignments travel from the main hub to the regional depot and from there to the consignee (last-mile delivery). International gateways are specialised hubs for cross-border consignments with customs clearance.
