Thursday, 25 October 2018
Austroads has published a report exploring the opportunity of extended hours of delivery within Australia and New Zealand.
Internationally, re-timing deliveries has been successfully demonstrated in cities such as New York, Barcelona, Dublin and London. Transport for London (TfL) suggest that more than 90% of urban freight is transported by road, and during peak hours, freight vehicles account for 25% of traffic.
The Austroads study implemented and evaluated trials of freight deliveries in urban areas in off-peak periods. The trials were set up using the findings from Austroads project FS1999 Overcoming Barriers to Off-peak Movement of Freight in Urban Areas, which include the need for effective stakeholder engagement, collaboration, sharing of problems and solutions and the importance of aiming to leave a legacy after major events.
Both Brisbane City Council and City of Gold Coast volunteered to undertake trials in their jurisdictions. The Gold Coast were particularly interested in trials to help prepare them and the local freight industry for deliveries during the Commonwealth Games in April 2018.
Delivering quietly in the off-peak can benefit the community and businesses but requires negotiations of delivery restrictions with Local Governments and industry stakeholders.
Preparing Government staff and encouraging change in urban freight by re-timing and consolidating deliveries is an iterative process requiring perseverance, effort and collaboration. Supply chains are often complex and re-timing cannot be done in isolation from other aspects of the supply chain.
This report provides a summary of findings, the process, the range of responses from stakeholders and the successes and challenges of setting up delivery trials on the Gold Coast and also in Brisbane, Australia.
Report link: Establishing Extended Hours Delivery Trials
Webinar link: Establishing Extended Hours Delivery Trials