In the hub and spoke model, which component distributes and sorts cargo from multiple sources?

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The central hub acts as the gathering and sorting point in a hub-and-spoke system. It receives cargo from many different sources (the spokes), consolidates it, sorts it by final destination, and then forwards the sorted shipments along the appropriate spokes to their next leg. This centralization of sorting reduces the number of direct routes needed and speeds up routing, which is the defining efficiency of the hub-and-spoke model.

Spokes are the routes that connect sources to and from the hub; they transport cargo but don’t perform the large-scale, multi-source sorting done at the hub. A distribution center is a facility that stores and sorts goods, but in this model the key sorting and distribution across multiple origins happens at the hub. A terminal is mainly a transfer point for loading/unloading rather than the central sorting node for many sources.