Delivery firms urged to re-time London deliveries to avoid peak hours
Municipal authorities, businesses and delivery firms met yesterday in London to discuss how logistics needs to adapt to a “rapidly changing” city. The event saw pleas for companies to re-time their deliveries in the UK capital to take place outside the peak hours of 7am to 1pm, to help ease congestion on London’s roads.
Transport for London, which has recently been reported as concerned at the number of courier vehicles now plying London’s roads in the wake of the e-commerce boom, said £200bn of goods is now moved on London’s roads each year.
The city’s transport authority said it needs to re-introduce an approach to logistics seen during the London 2012 Olympics in order to cope, as a major £4bn road modernisation programme begins.
Careful planning will be needed as the volume of goods transported around London increases, with forecasts that the population is set to grow from 8.6m to more than 10m by 2030.
Transport for London said it is drawing up a long-term strategic approach for the management of freight in London, and is stepping up its work on detailed advice for businesses and operators.
“Unprecedented”
London’s Transport Commissioner, Sir Peter Hendy said: “The unprecedented growth and changing nature of London is placing increasing pressure on our road network. Never has the need to adapt been more pressing.
“We must build on all the work we did together during the London 2012 Games to make further progress on retiming outside the busiest times, rerouting and consolidating deliveries. This will mean less congestion, improved road safety and reduced costs for the industry and businesses.”
DHL Transport UK & Ireland managing director Tim Slater spoke of the importance of re-timing deliveries, for operators to succeed.
“By sharing best practice and innovative technologies, such as our new gas powered concept vehicle, retiming of deliveries to out of the peak can become a reality; ensuring reliability, easing congestion and improving road safety,” he said.
DHL is among a number of postal and express companies working on new approaches to urban logistics, including use of alternative vehicle technologies, and the use of “urban freight centres” on the outskirts of a city to consolidate deliveries so that fewer vehicles are needed to travel into city centres.
