Crowley Logistics, Jacksonville, Fla., opened its newly expanded Medley warehouse in Miami to provide more seamless and efficient supply chain services to South Florida customers. The project, which began in November 2017, added 60,000 square feet, and consolidated the company’s Medley and Doral facilities into the Medley warehouse.

Now at 180,000 square feet, the warehouse doubled the previous number of receiving doors, and features over 5,000 pallet rack positions and 95 container parking spots along with an improved, single direction truck flow to prevent cross-traffic and increase safety.

A section of the warehouse was activated as a Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ), allowing the facility to receive, store and process cargo without it being subject to formal U.S. Customs entry procedures and payment of duties until the cargo enters the United States and is made available for domestic use and consumption.

“This improved consolidation facility is designed to enhance the customer experience, increase the velocity of our customers’ supply chains, decrease total landed costs and offer seamless and reliable collaboration among the varying components of transport,” says Frank Larkin, senior vice president and general manager, logistics and commercial services. “Our warehousing and distribution experts can now utilize the additional features of this space to develop quality solutions for shippers who have full or less-than-container loads of cargo moving though the South Florida area.”

During the expansion and remodel, all pallet racking was upgraded to Rack Avengers, which uses high-grade structural steel to re-enforce the base of each rack, allowing it to withstand a forklift impact up to 14,000 pounds at 14 mph.

Additionally, to meet the demands of the growing e-commerce market, a devoted receiving area was constructed to ensure same-day, expedited processing of approximately 1,000 small packages received from online shopping. The IT infrastructure, lighting and other safety points across the facility were also upgraded to keep warehouse staff and visitors safe in the fast-moving work environment.

“The new racking systems, traffic patterns, yard improvements, lighting and safety planning demonstrates Crowley’s commitment to have our employees working in the safest, most technically advanced environment possible,” says Ken Black, vice president, NVOCC and warehouse services.

A devoted walk-up retail service area now enables customers to bring in local purchases for packing, preparation of export documentation and shipping to Cuba, the Caribbean and Central America, as well as receive face-to-face assistance from a customer service representative.

Crowley’s Miami location provides a full package of supply chain services, including air and ocean cargo consolidation/deconsolidation, pool point distribution, pick, pack and sorting, labeling, packing and crating, inventory management and customs brokerage.