Retailers campaign for relaxed curfews
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Millions could be saved if local councils relaxed their delivery curfews — but London delivery charges are on the rise. CM'S news team reports.
RETAILERS WOULD SAVE an average of £3.3m a year if delivery curfews to their stores were relaxed, according to the British Retail Consortium.
It claims most curfews fail to take account of reductions in disturbance achieved by improved engine technology and special training for drivers.
A BRC-commissioned survey of retailers which account for more than 7,000 retail outlets around the UK shows that most curfews are enforced between llpm and 7am.
If the times were relaxed by between one and two hours on either side of the start and finish times, the BRC argues, there would be less congestion during the busiest periods of the day.
BRC director-general Kelvin Hawkins says: "Many businesses all over the UK are suffering at the hands of rigid delivery curfews and at massive cost but this needn't be the case."
Government officials and business leaders have already begun discussing a revision of delivery curfew guidelines around the country (CM 17 March).
Once this is done trials will be undertaken to see how a staged relaxation of existing curfews can best be achieved.
A case study was carried out with one FTA member which services 166 stores in the UK, including 70 which are subject to night-time curfews.
The operator calculated it could remove 25 HGVs from the road, save 150,000 vehicle miles and make fuel savings of 52,000 litres a year if the curfew was relaxed by just two hours.
FTA Highways Traffic manager Stephen Kelly says latest research shows the use of bus lanes by HGVs has no impact on bus times or road safety.