The new Federal Express warehouse will have up to four customs officers on the site to speed up delivery time to customers.

The facility opened on Saturday outside Hamilton and from now on the daily FedEx flights which land in Bermuda will unload directly into FedEx vans which will be sealed with special tape by customs officers, before being taken to the new depot.

There they will be taken through to a restricted area on site where customs will do their inspections before packages are put into vans and delivered to customers.

"The service is going to be second to none,'' said Roger Moniz of FedEx.

The company hopes the process will mean that the shipping time for packages on the Island will be dramatically reduced.

Previously the company had to wait in line with UPI, DHl, Swift and IBC at a clearing depot at the airport before being allowed to move its goods and take them to a sorting centre in Hamilton.

Now the company's Par-la-Ville offices have officially been closed since Saturday and the company has moved lock stock and barrel to the Staples warehouse in Serpentine Road in Pembroke.

The new offices opened for trade from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday and a sign was due to go up over the weekend.

The company has gone from having 3,600 square of office space to 13,000 square feet at the new site.

The lot only became vacant a few weeks ago and work will be ongoing for the next few months to set up the facility.

Mailboxes Unlimited will now have the only Hamilton locations for dropping off FedEx packages, but customers will still be able to go to the new depot and mail from there. The Mailboxes sites are at Church Street, across from City Hall and on Par-la-Ville, behind Portofino. They will offer all FedEx services.

Any packages dropped off by 5.30 p.m. will be guaranteed next morning delivery.

The new bond for FedEx is expected to ease up delivery of parcels for rival couriers such as DHL as the airport will have more room for customs to sort the packages.