East Midlands Regional Assembly - Freight and the Environment

Freight and the Environment

The State of Freight Report identified a range of factors which can contribute to an unacceptable level of environmental impacts from freight transport on communities and on the natural and built environments. This range of factors included :-

Continued high growth in demand for road freight in the Region, related partially to:
- Slowly increasing journey lengths reflecting the ongoing national trend towards centralisation of distribution activity and production,
- The particular strategic situation of the East Midlands at the focus of the national highway network, and thus of many interregional movements, with the consequent demand for retail distribution centres especially in the Region’s Southern Subarea,
- Growing practices such as “just in time” logistics can offset the benefits of factors such as the potential of larger capacity vehicles. There is some scope to further improve utilisation of vehicles and backloading.
- Road congestion forcing hauliers to avoid particular routes/times of day, and thus potentially using less environmentally acceptable routes or travelling at less environmentally acceptable times. Road damage through use of inappropriate routes is also a factor here.
- Inadequate distribution/location of Lorry Parks in the Region leading to overnight parking in unauthorised locations and use of unacceptable routes to access such locations.
- Vehicle pollutants such as CO2 emissions from transport, contribute to climate change. While all transport modes contribute to some extent, differences between modes are established. However, there is, for example, scope to further the good progress already achieved by roadfreight operators in re-equipping with more environmentally friendly vehicles to the latest “Euro” standards, and adopting environmentally friendly practice

Within the Peak District National Park it will be important for the EMRFGto engage with the South Pennines Integrated Transport Strategy in addressing the specific environmental impacts therein.

Government plans to introduce Lorry Road User Charging (LRUC) for LGV’s by 2008 have now been subsumed within wider work on a comprehensive national road pricing scheme. It will be important to support the lorry element of any wider scheme as it potentially offers a powerful tool for encouraging the use of acceptable routes/times by differential charging by time of day and road type. Whilst LRUC was primarily designed to give a broadly more equitable tax regime, it had potential to reflect specific local environmental costs incurred by the industry. This could usefully support the range of more conventional actions detailed overleaf.

KEY POLICY 2:

Regional and local partners to work together to pursue a range of measures to actively influence the reduction of the environmental impact of freight.

TARGET:

To contribute appropriately to the Regional Attainment of the National PSA target on CO2 emissions.

	Action Plan	Lead Partner	Supporting Partner	Time-scale
2.1	Roadfreight Routing and Delivery Framework Review current lorry routing policy and measures across the Region and adjoining areas, and develop a consistent freight routing and delivery framework to address Key Policy 2. This should include a recommended strategic freight network and, where appropriate, coherent delivery and routing restrictions, guidance on operator-led effi ciencies and the role of consolidation centres. Consistency will of course assist understanding of and thus compliance with such measures, but it will be important to balance progress here which might require smaller vehicles being used in particular situations, with the efficiency gains that can otherwise be derived from larger capacity vehicles. The implications for smaller operators need to be carefully considered. Government has been currently assessing with stakeholders opportunities for introducing a Delivery Curfew Initiative, in which debate EMRFG needs to engage.	EMRFAG	FQP’s Local Transport Authorities Freight industry Police, Highways Agency Peak District National Park Authority	2006/7
2.2	Implementation of Schemes Develop, where appropriate, proposals primarily through the LTP process, or otherwise as appropriate, to implement the framework proposed in 2.1.	Local Transport Authorities	EMRA	ongoing
2.3	Publicity and Signing Develop realistic and deliverable proposals to publicise and sign the network, for example, through the publication of a multi-modal Regional Freight Atlas, web-based information, and through high quality and consistent signing of recommended routes/key destinations/restrictions for roadfreight. It will be important for stakeholders to consider whether regional (and maybe wider) mapping adds genuine value to the various LTA area maps currently in preparation, bearing in mind the likely incomplete coverage at that level, and also what scope there might be for a national approach. Clearly, web-based information is likely to be of increasing value, and there will be merit in researching whether in-cab GIS systems could tap into any national, regional or LTA databases. A regional freight atlas could also have a valuable promotional use in addition to meeting the more obvious routeing needs. By also including the location of waterway and rail terminals/routes, a multi-modal atlas could help potential users to establish whether a more sustainable modal choice exists which might meet their business needs. (See also actions 4.1 and 5.6 for rail and waterway freight promotion.)	EMRFG	FQP’s Local Transport Authorities Freight industry	2006/7
2.4	Review current lorry parking and other driver facilities throughout the region in the light of the EU Working Time Directive, assess parallel activity in other regions and nationally, establish minimum standards and an appropriate planning framework, and develop proposals to address deficiencies, and guide commercial providers. This will help focus lorry movements on the strategic network whilst at the same time improve working conditions in the industry, contributing to addressing recruitment and retention issues (see also Key Policy 8) and concerns over crime. In some areas, progress has been made in the overnight use of Park and Ride sites to provide high quality lorry parking facilities, where their daytime opening hours do not conflict with lorry drivers’ requirements. This approach may well have merits in this Region where there are a number of high quality purpose-built Park and Ride sites, but care would be needed not to detract from the sites’ prime function.	EMRFAG Local Transport Authorities Local Planning Authorities	FQP’s, EMRA,	2006/7
2.5	Road Pricing Work constructively with Government to progress, implement and maximise the benefits of the lorry components of the proposed national road pricing scheme, including assessing, subject to wide consultation, whether there is any scope to develop a more finely-graded regional variant to assist in addressing Key Policy 2.	RFAG	Local Transport Authorities	Subject to timing of any national road pricing scheme
2.6	Vehicle Technology and Emissions Sustain, through ongoing liaison with operators, the good progress made by the industry in the use of more environmentally acceptable vehicles generally, and in particular for local distribution. See also Action Plan 8.8	EMRFAG	FQP’s	ongoing
2.7	Sustainable Distribution Take a lead in developing with stakeholders a holistic approach to raising awareness in the industry of the range of measures that can be considered as best practice in sustainable distribution, and to offer targeted assistance to companies wishing to develop these themes. This could include coordination and promotion of driver and operator training, and a toolkit for distribution decision-makers to make a better informed choice of mode. See also Action Plans 6.4, 6.7 and 8.4.	EMRFAG	FQP’s, Local Transport Authorities	ongoing
2.8	Support the increased local sourcing of goods in the region, particularly in the food and drink sector. RFG to investigate freight implications. This action supports policies within the Regional Environment Strategy.	EMRA	EMRFAG emda	ongoing

Last updated: 8th March 2007