With most major road schemes scrapped and traffic volumes continuing
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to rise, do operators need to change their ways to prevent gridlock and avoid a threatened backlash against trucks?
The road haulage industry is in for an unsettled period. It is forecast to grow by a third over the next 10 years— but the infrastructure will not grow at anything like that rate. The resulting congestion will inevitably reduce vehicle and driver productivity and push up fuel consumption and maintenance costs.
Some idea of the scale of that congestion is provided by the Department of Transport, which says the best measure of freight activity is in terms of tonne kilometres (the weight of a load multiplied by the distance it is carried). This figure rose by 45% in the decade up to 1995 and it's projected to rise by as much as 36% by 2005. Over the same period, the number of cars is expected to rise by up to
28%.
The Freight Transport Association's Geoff Dossetter points out that between 1985 and 1995, the number of CVs over 3.5 tonnes actually fell by 14,000, to 418,000. The move to 40 and even 44 tonnes will probably lead to further reductions. "It is cars that are the basic problem in this mix," he explains. "The road transport industry has a public relations job to do in convincing the public that lorries are doing a valuable, worthwhile and indeed essential job."
However, he does accept that operators should act to minimise the impact of freight traffic. This might include switching from road to rail where possible and better scheduling to increase backloading and night-time journeys. "Around 28% of lorries are running empty at the moment and that figure is falling," he says. "Hopefully it will continue to fall, although there is a limit"
Distance tax
Environmental lobby groups demand more radical solutions, such as replacing vehicle duty with a "distance tax" so that the biggest trucks travelling the longest distance pay the most tax. This is currently being considered by the European Commission.
Phil Parker, freight cam paigner for Transport 2000, says: "Although car mileage and car numbers are much higher, lorries do far more damage in terms of pollution, road damage and accidents. You could make a bigger impact by reducing freight by 10% than by reducing cars by 10% " Operators appear to be becoming increasingly sensitive to such arguments. A report commissioned by TDG Williams and published in September acknowledges the way freight traffic is generated by just-in-time deliveries, causing increased damage to roads and the environment. Managing director Philip Honor says that "reducing the environmental impact made by road freight" is a major concern of his company
Nine months ago, Wincanton Logistics launched an initiative to reduce empty running in a dedicated contract with food giant Heinz by backloading with third-party traffic in a project called NET Logistics Project general manager Geoff Pomroy says: "We are achieving in excess of 80% vehicle utilisation on return journeys where it is viable to back. load." The company aims to attract a number of other high-vol
ume customers on the same basis within the next two years.
Nonetheless, professor John Whitelegg, a consultant to the European Commission on the growth of road freight transport, believes the idea of green logistics is still in its infancy. "Britain does better than most countries in offering a sophisticated transport service," he says, "but there needs to be a much closer partnership between manufacturers and fleet operators as well as more co-operation with the railway industry, There also needs to be more partnership with local authorities; sometimes these things can only work with urban distribution centres where lorries and trains can make an efficient link-up."
Whitelegg says government should act as a catalyst for such projects, but warns that it will only do so if business is active in demanding them.
As trucks become bigger, the pressure to restrict their movement in built-up areas is likely to intensify. Last year a working party of local authorities chaired by the 14TA was set up to examine the issue. Birmingham is one of five towns and cities where possible solutions are being explored.
Strategic policy
Chris Haynes, Birmingham's strategic policy manager for transport, says: "What we would want to do is encourage major distribution firms to look at providing a total service within the urban area. It would involve decanting goods into a large warehouse and then smaller, more environmentally friendly vehicles would be used to deliver them within the centre."
But Rebecca Jenkins, managing director of Lane Group, says the biggest drawback of such ideas is lack of any proof that they would work. She also questions where funding for researching the different technologies and operational options should come from: "There are few distribution companies who can seriously contemplate the huge investment that would be necessary," she points out.
Railfreight has made little impact on road volumes but privatisation of the rail network is seen as an opportunity to move more freight from road to rail. English Scottish & Welsh Railway, the largest rail freight carrier in the UK, says: "Before privatisation we were never able to to develop our own business by looking for new markets because we were required to make an 8% return on any contracts we had."
But many of the solutions to ease traffic congestion will depend on the political will to take action and that, to a large extent, will depend on how serious the problem becomes.
1991 1,505 1992 1,463 1993 1,523 1994 1,597 '1995 1,609 per 000,000 tonnes
Geoff Dossetter says: "In 10 years time, if it becomes apparent that industry in the UK is very much more seriously inhibited by congestion than it is now, there may be decisions made to move operations to an environment where the transport operation is more efficient." Increased congestion could also lead to a sea change in public opinion in favour of more road building. But for now, at least, most operators seem able to cope.
Paul Fox is director of parcels carrier WPS in Solihull and also of 021 Courier Services He relies on one of the most congested stretches of motorway in Europe—the M6 between Junctions 6 and 10. "Journey times are getting longer and longer," he says, "and the afternoon rush-hour now seems to start at 3.30 to 4.00pm instead of at 5.00pm. But it would still have to get a lot worse before we were unable to operate our business efficiently."
Melvyn Peters, MSC programme director at the Cranfield School of Logistics and Transportation, concludes: "I think we are still at the stage where we are recognising the seriousness of the problem as it develops— but not at the stage where everybody is ringing their hands and saying that is far enough. Pressure is not great enough for a wholesale change in the way we do our business logistically but I think we are at the beginning of a reappraisal."
C by Guy Sheppard