“London Stalling”: London Assembly Transport Committee publishes report on traffic congestion
In its newly-published report, “London Stalling”, the London Assembly Transport Committee has called for a range of measure to combat the problems of traffic congestion in the UK capital. The report’s headline proposal calls on the Mayor of London to reform the Congestion Charge and “ultimately” replace it with road pricing.
“The current Congestion Charge is no longer fit for purpose,” the Transport Committee said in a statement issued today (19 January), “it is a blunt instrument using old technology that covers a tiny part of London.”
The report also includes some recommendations that will have particular significance for the post & parcel sector. These include:
- Reducing restrictions on night-time deliveries
- Piloting a ban on personal deliveries for staff
- Reconsidering ‘click and collect’ at Tube and rail stations
- Developing “consolidation centres”
The Transport Committee requested that Transport for London (TfL) should report back on its plans by the end of April.
The report outlined why the London Assembly’s Transport Committee is concerned about the delivery vans and light goods vehicles: “Vans make up around 80 per cent of commercial traffic in London, and are responsible for almost all the recent growth. After a period of stability, LGV traffic has increased from 3.8 to 4.2 billion kilometres per year since 2012 (11 per cent) while HGV traffic has remained stable at 1.0 billion kilometres per year.”
Click here to access a PDF of the London Stalling report.
The delivery industry has been mulling over the proposals today. David Jinks, Head of Consumer Research with parcel broker Fastlane International told Post&Parcel: “The long-term future for deliveries into cities (both domestic and business/retail) is hub and spoke operations, with out of town distributions centres then feeding through to eco-friendly delivery vehicles for ‘the final mile’ to homes and businesses. But this is still some way off.”
