FTA welcomes package of Government freight innovation and image measures

The Freight Transport Association has welcomed a new package of measures announced today (29 November) in the Department for Transport’s Logistics Growth Review. The Review, which was launched over the summer and has drawn extensively on feedback from industry, highlights the role central and local government must play in partnership with industry in capturing the benefits of low carbon hgvs and quiet night-time deliveries in urban areas.

To promote the uptake of low-carbon, low emission hgvs, an industry-led task force will work with local authorities to incentivise the use of these vehicles in urban areas and provide guidance to operators regarding the most appropriate low-carbon technology for a given hgv duty cycle. At the same time the Government has set aside £8 million to pump prime the procurement of low emission HGV technologies and their supporting infrastructure.

Theo de Pencier, FTA’s Chief Executive, said:
"The industry-led task force, backed by Government funding for investment in low-carbon hgvs and refuelling infrastructure, provides much-needed impetus for technologies which until now industry has only used in trials or on a small scale. The FTA-managed Logistics Carbon Reduction Scheme, an industry-led voluntary agreement to reduce the carbon-intensity of freight transport in the UK, highlights industry’s appetite to keep innovating to drive down carbon emissions. However, this has got to make commercial and environmental sense, and it is this challenge that the task force will help address."

The Logistics Growth Review also announced that FTA and the Noise Abatement Society will be asked to build on the Quiet Deliveries Demonstration Scheme by expanding the existing Scheme’s best practice guidance into a toolkit that includes standards for quiet night-time deliveries and identify if further government guidance is needed to promote uptake.

de Pencier continued:
"Out of hours deliveries offer well-proven operational and environmental benefits for operators and communities. When combined with practices, vehicles and equipment to reduce noise levels, the intrusion on local residents can be minimised. However, the current planning system makes such innovations difficult. This log jam needs to be broken and tackling the planning system at a national level is the place to start."