Developing a strategic freight holders club

Summary

Enhancing dialogue among freight operators was explored as a way of improving the efficiency of delivery services in Norwich and thus improving air quality in the city.

Implementing sustainable mobility

In an effort to tackle rising congestion levels and improve urban air quality, Norwich undertook several measures focusing on freight operators in order to make goods deliveries in the city more efficient.

This measure aimed to establish a freight stakeholder group that could work together to develop a strategic freight initiative in the Norwich urban area. It attempted to involve key private sector haulage, logistics and freight distributors and the local authorities to establish delivery and collection needs and identify where these could be combined and made more efficient, resulting in a reduced number of trips, reduced vehicle emissions and lower fuel consumption.

Progress

The first half of the project was dedicated to determining the operators interested in the freight measures. This involved:

• setting up a web-based virtual exhibition;
• advertising the website in logistics magazines;
• writing to 700 operators (locally and nationally) asking them to visit the site; and
• providing a downloadable reply form on which operators could express their interest.

Outcomes

There was only limited interest from operators in forming a stakeholders group. It was also difficult to encourage those who did express an interest in forming a club to attend any regular working group meetings. Instead, it was possible to ask interested operators to contribute to strategies and consultation work as and when required.