The real price of home deliveries
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• Home delivery from supermarkets would be a logistics nightmare and would leave drivers facing vehicle theft, mountainous climbs in high-rise flats and even dog attacks, say transport associations.
Road Haulage Association operations director John Chapman, himself a former home-delivery driver, says a major problem would be that people would not be at home to take delivery of the goods.
There has been a flurry of press reports predicting that Britain's superstores will re-establish home food deli \ cries in the wake of a survey which found that one in five of shoppers want the service.
Ensuring that customers are in when deliveries arrive and preserving chilled and fresh foods remain difficult problems.
"It's ferociously expensive," says Chapman. "One superstore put it at .0.50 per delivery but I think that's pitched too low."
Among the firms already successfully carrying out home deliveries for large stores is White Arrow, which delivers for Great Universal Stores.