Olympic status is too costly for small hauliers
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By Chris Druce SMALL OPERATORS have been warned that the cost of attaining Vendor Certiication Programme (VCP) status for next year’s Olympics will far outweigh any commercial beneit.
Following a meeting between the Brewery Logistics Group (BLG), members KN Drinks Logistics and Heineken, and the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) last week (23 September), a BLG member who wishes to remain anonymous, tells CM: “If you’re a small operator, I’d steer clear as it’s too big a cost.” While hauliers will not need VCP status for their facility to make deliveries around the 13 Olympic venues in the capital, any operators delivering directly to Olympic venues, rather than using oficial Olympics logistics partner UPS, will need to have it as well as accreditation for individual drivers.
It is a free process similar to a Criminal Records Bureau check, requiring a decade of each individual’s personal and work history.
“I understand why they have to do this for security and even why they are actively dissuading people from applying,” says the source.
“However, there remains the is
sue of ensuring high levels of service are maintained and if it works commercially at all, as I’m sure UPS or any other VCP holders will not be delivering on the cheap.” Meanwhile KN Drinks Logistics, which has three London depots and needs to get deliveries into Olympic venues for its client Heineken, an oficial Games supplier, estimates that upgrading just one of its locations to meet the VCP standard will cost as much as £160,000 in terms of increased security, additional cameras and implementing segregated stock areas. It is looking at delivery alternatives.
• www.roadtransport.com/olympics
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