The Thomasville, N.C.-based company spent $10.5 million to build the 25,000-square-foot facility northwest of South Academy Boulevard and Milton Proby Parkway that opened in May. The terminal has 51 doors to load and unload freight, which is triple the 17 doors at a facility Old Dominion had leased in Fountain, and the 11.5-acre site has room to expand the facility with another 40 doors as freight volumes grow, said Chris Kelley, a regional vice president for the company.
“Although the expansion wasn’t anticipated for 5-7 years, it could be sooner than expected with our record growth,” Kelley said. The company is already using 70% of the terminal’s capacity as freight volumes across the company grow — Old Dominion last month reported its shipments during the second quarter grew by a third from a year earlier, boosting revenue by nearly 50% to a record $1.32 billion and profits by nearly double. The company specializes in shipments that fill up less than a full semi-trailer.
Kelley said much of the growth has come from shipments to and from Amazon’s new 3.7 million-square-foot fulfillment center near the Colorado Springs Airport, Target’s distribution center in Pueblo and several other distribution centers in southern Colorado. Amazon’s five-story center, located about four miles east of Old Dominion’s terminal, will employ 2,500 people and will stock more than 20 million different items.
Old Dominion has hired five additional employees at the terminal since it opened, and plans to hire 10 in the next year, especially drivers amid a nationwide shortage of truck drivers. The company has posted openings on its website for drivers who make local pickups and deliveries and earn a starting wage of $28.70 an hour, or nearly $60,000 a year. The company also has posted openings for forklift operators and dock workers with a starting wage of $17 an hour.
The new terminal is one of six new terminals Old Dominion has opened this year in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, part of a $1.7 billion expansion that increased the number of freight doors by 50% during the past 10 years. The company bought the site of the Colorado Springs terminal in 2019 for $1.85 million from Springs Waste Systems and started construction on the building just before the COVID-19 pandemic triggered widespread online purchasing that sent freight shipping volumes soaring.
Old Dominion employs 23,000 to operate 248 terminals nationwide, including Denver and Grand Junction in Colorado.
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