Summer in the city
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Next summer might seem a long way away when there’s tomorrow, next week, and next month to worry about. But the transport industry must address next summer now – because it’s going to be sheer bloody mayhem otherwise.
Last week, the Freight Transport Association and DHL held separate events to address the logistics nightmare that is summer 2012: the Jubilee, followed by the Olympics and then the Paralympics – a “three-month Christmas” as some are calling it because of the spike in volumes.
For any operator that needs to deliver goods into or through London (and any Olympic area for that matter), life is going to be especially difficult. The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) appears to have adopted a nonchalant attitude towards London’s logistics needs during the Games and has belatedly passed responsibility for this to Transport for London (TfL). It’s a small crumb of comfort that, while the needs of London are in danger of being ignored, the ODA nevertheless has had the foresight to relocate 2,000 newts.
The Games should be a example of the “great” in Great Britain, but there is a danger that the flood of visitors will be unwatered and unfed outside the Olympic Stadium, simply because this country’s last great industry won’t be allowed to do its job. So we all need to keep pressure on TfL and the ODA.
There’s just enough time to head the nightmare off at the pass.
● What do you think of tacho-fiddling drivers and how they should be punished? Go to www.roadtrasport.com/britain to tell us. Justin Stanton