Leading supermarkets and food manufacturers support DFT transport costs survey

The UK Food and Drinks Transport Costs survey commissioned by the Department for Transport (DfT) has gained the support of most of the leading supermarkets and food retailers as well as food manufacturers in the UK. The number of vehicles in the fleets of companies participating to-date is almost 4,000. The findings will provide insight into the cost of UK food miles.

David Cheesewright, Chief Operating Officer of ASDA has said he fully supports the DfT initiative and the SCALA Logistics Consulting surveys. “I encourage our colleagues across the Food and Drink Supply Chain to take part in this important Survey. It is important to see how productivity and efficiency gains have been achieved since 2002 and to identify what more needs to be done particularly in the areas of carbon emission and empty running reduction and increasing fuel efficiency and best value”

The DfT has commissioned SCALA Logistics Consulting to conduct major surveys of the Food and Drink transport sectors stemming from the DfT strategy for Sustainable Distribution. These surveys will explore the efficiency of the transport of food and drink in England, whether carried by manufacturers, retailers or logistics companies. Similar surveys were conducted in 1998 and 2002.

The SCALA project manager for the DfT survey is Graham Stubs, who has many years of experience in the UK logistics and transport industry. Mr Stubbs said “we are delighted to have this support from retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers and logistics companies. We are already confident that the number of companies will exceed those in the DfT survey four years ago; in fact the number of vehicles is already 25% higher than in 2002.

SCALA has now set up initial consultation workshops on Wednesday November 15th at the Holiday Inn Hotel at Hemel Hempstead and on Thursday November 16th at the Renaissance Hotel near Junction 28 of the M1. These will cover both Food and Drinks into the retail sector but, in addition on the afternoon of 15th SCALA is holding an additional workshop focussed on drinks companies serving the licensed “On Trade”.

For further information contact SCALA Consulting Tel: 01484 422084 or e-mail survey@scalagroup.co.uk or visit www.scalagroup.co.uk/news_events. Companies can also contact the SCALA project manager directly: Graham Stubbs 07775 633775

Copies of the 2002 Benchmarking Guide, Key Performance Indicators for the Food Supply Chain, can be ordered, free of charge, from the Freight Best Practice hotline on 0845 877 0 877, or you can download a copy from:
www.freightbestpractice.org.uk
www.scalagroup.co.uk