IoC at Palestra House TfL HQ location for the 15th London Freight Forum.
A Friday peak hours full house of cross-sector transport on the eve of the Lord Mayor's Show.
Nick Davies head of transport at Sainsburys talked brand loyalty and took questions on profitability of home delivery.
Prof Alan Braithwaite delivered research findings on a van project focused on East London, "Vans are under-researched, vans are demonised but not the problem, there needs to be more research of van freight."
Palestra House, 15th forum opened by TfL boss, Mike Brown ‘Collaboration is key.’ Mike went on to T-charge, commercial vehicle numbers in T-charge are low, commercial freight is compliant. Mike then gave news Tim Ward was stepping out of TfL at the end of year. Mike introduced Alex Williams, the new go-to guy for freight.
Eyes down for vision of congestion, compliance and working together to deliver Christmas. Tim Ward delivered what maybe his last big speech. ’15 years at TfL, success news was LoCity LSA win for national recognition of the new blended learning packages. First T charge numbers show freight is complying to clean air. Air quality remains a national challenge, not just London-centric.’ Time detailed FORS, re-timing, the freight bulletin, road work co-ordination, CS6 and the next cycle super-highways, West End project and Brent Cross 2018.
Excellent keynotes reported below before Leon Daniels closed with the Mayor's strategy for clean air, a strategy today accepted by the majority of all Londoners.
15th freight forum - the keynotes
The 15th forum then had a run of key external speakers. The network of key transport players was born for the Olympic games and in its 15th meeting it is looking at solutions for delivering Christmas 2017.
Ending a week of London focus that began with Freight Expo at Ally Pally. Express rising to peak with exploding numbers of e-retail deliveries. Ali Kagalwalla from CitySprint defined the bicycle courier as the key green solution to express in high density city locations, while Sam Clarke Gnewt focused on volume and larger small vans to maintain delivery performance with drive speeds around 7mph and a days work covering six miles on road and seven miles on foot for a typical delivery operative in the central London.
LoCity, clean air and congestion all top of the agenda. Prof Alan Braithwaite with a wide number of respected papers on food supply chain points out, ‘It's not just e-commerce’ and discussions set for delivering Christmas across the sector.
Professor Alan Braithwaite – City Logistics, profiling freight and its growth, It's not just e-commerce.
Prof Alan Braithwaite delivered research findings on a van project focused on East London, Vans are under-researched, vans are demonised but not the problem, there needs to be more research of van freight.
Nick Davies, head of transport for Sainsbury's, ‘Managing logistics peak’
Christmas is about omni-channel & returns. Get it wrong and we will damage the brand. Contingency for Christmas needs to be covered. Snow, bad weather is our biggest enemy to freight. Nick explained the Sainsburys network and Argos positions. By Christmas there will be 169 Argos stores embedded in Sainsburys' supermarkets. Argos report, ‘order by two on Christmas Eve for delivery before Christmas.
Leon Daniels closed on Mayor's strategy for clean air
Nick Davies – head of transport Sainsbury's
Prof Alan Braithwaite – we need research on van freight
TfL freight forum is about networking – Dr Erica Ballantyne Sheffield Univ talks express with Andy Wilson TNT, Jerry Ward John Lewis, Andrew Lowery Carousel Logistics.
Tim Ward 15 years at TfL, leaves at Christmas