Freight
Freight Transport and Logistics in Staffordshire
The freight transport and logistics industry is an important activity in Staffordshire in terms of the economy, the impact on the transport network and the local environment.
The M6 motorway through the County is a key corridor from the south to the north of the country accommodating typical HGV flows of around 35,000-40,000 on a week day. The A38, A5, M54, A50 and A34 in the County all accommodate significant flows of HGV traffic. The West Coast Mainline through Staffordshire is one of the most heavily trafficked rail freight routes in the country.
The prevalence of the logistics industry and storage and warehousing uses in the County is in part a reflection of good access and the central position in the country to serve a national distribution service. Employment in these industries in Staffordshire is well above the national average.
The County is host to some important sub-regional freight routes and some major freight destinations although surprisingly it lacks a significant presence of Staffordshire based road hauliers. The roads of Staffordshire are host to regional, national and international hauliers who arguably have less connection and commitment to our local communities than our indigenous businesses. The rail freight industry is characterised by business organisation at a national level.
It is important that the County Council does not consider the needs of the freight industry or the communities affected by HGV's or rail freight traffic in isolation. Whether by road, rail, water or air, freight is one component of traffic and the needs of all users of the transport system have to be considered and accommodated. Inevitably any initiative under the auspices of a freight or HGV measure could have wide ranging impacts for other transport users.
The logistics business and operators of HGV's in particular often have a poor image in the eyes of the public. To the car driver slower moving HGV's are often perceived as an inconvenience and to the pedestrian and cyclist a positive threat to their personal safety and well-being. For the HGV operator this poor perception is set against a backdrop of considerable regulation covering everything from driver's working hours to the depth of tyre treads.
The contribution of the logistics sector to the economy is often under-valued being perceived and cited as a low paid and land hungry sector. The reality is on the whole somewhat different with the logistics sector in the County among some of the most technically adept, forward-thinking and innovative of businesses.
A Freight Strategy embedded in the Policy Fabric
The policy context for this Freight Strategy document comes from the third Staffordshire Local Transport Plan|, the Regional Transport Strategy incorporated in the Regional Spatial Strategy (as now revoked) and government policy 'Creating Growth, Cutting Carbon: Making Local Sustainable Transport Happen'.
Notwithstanding the desire to avoid 'silo' thinking there is considered to be a need for a Strategy that draws together actions that more specifically relate to the movement of freight and that include 'softer' behavioural change and demand side measures.
The process of producing the Freight Strategy
Work began on the Freight Strategy in October 2009. Early consultation in preparation of a first draft document drew out a number of issues with specific resonance to the situation in Staffordshire. These included the impact of HGV's on the local and rural road network, road freight efficiency measures, accidents involving HGV's, HGV parking, the use or indeed misuse of satellite navigation systems and the potential of rail freight.
In May 2010 a first document was produced and a 'restricted' consultation undertaken with a few key stakeholders. In light of this initial consultation the Strategy was reappraised and published as a draft for full public consultation in May 2010. The public consultation rolled into the statutory period for consulting on LTP3 and then mirrored these arrangements becoming an annex to the overarching document. The public consultation period thus extended until the end of March 2011.
It is recognised as the Freight Strategy| (
, 2.8Mb) has progressed new issues have emerged and others have ascended and descended in significance. Particular issues that may need further work in policy development include priorities and actions that capture the 'grey' fleet, smaller delivery vans etc, and the potential for synergies in relation to aspects of road safety covering all users of transport.
Continuing Engagement
As well as the timetabled periods of consultation in preparation of the Freight Strategy the County Council continues to engage with the freight and logistics industry and local hauliers in particular. To date this has involved meeting with a number of individual companies in the County for discussion around a focussed agenda but allowing them to tell us anything which is of a concern. The County Council hosted a 'best practice' event for hauliers and logistics professionals in April 2011 around the broad themes of environment, fuel economy and low carbon. Engagement with local communities is embedded through the County Councils community-based highway maintenance teams.
Use of SatNav by HGV's
Problems with the misuse of SatNav and the inappropriate routing of HGV’s as a consequence of SatNav instruction is not considered to be a widespread in the County. The use of inappropriate roads does however occur from time to time and on very rare occasions the consequences of routing errors can be more serious resulting in an accident or severe congestion.
In broad terms there are three elements to ensuring the accurate and appropriate routing of HGV’s from SatNav technologies. The first is the quality of the definition of the base mapping and in particular in relation to HGV routing securing accurate height and width attributes. The second is the effective adjustment of the algorithm in the SatNav device so the data is interpreted to give an optimal route from the base mapping. The third is the choice of the device itself, in the most simple terms, ensuring it is a truck compatible system.
The community liaison team within the highways function have undertaken some projects to assist the Mapbase providers to SatNav hardware companies to improve the quality of the definition of the road hierarchy. The base mapping to all SatNav products is provided by two major providers Teleatlas and Navteq and is regularly surveyed, updated and reviewed.
In July 2010 the County Council with the assistance of Celtrade undertook a trial of a truck-based SatNav system the Garmin nuvi 465t. The choice of Garmin came from the County Council’s own survey research and although a comparative trial would have be preferred it was not considered to be an efficient use of constrained resources.
Overall, the Garmin nuvi 465t system performed well in terms of both the definition of the base data and the timeliness and clarity of presentation of information to the driver. Over-arching any consideration of SatNav’s are severe reservations about the overall encouragement of their use and it is respected that many hauliers discourage or ban them from their fleets. However, it is acknowledged they are a very valuable tool particularly to the multi-drop delivery driver and they enable greater competitive practice within the sector. SatNav technologies are also used in the practice of fleet management, vehicle tracking and strategic fleet route planning.
The County Council would obviously like to encourage those HGV drivers that are using SatNav to use one that is fit for purpose.
HGV Parking and Driver Facilities
Dedicated HGV parking areas and facilities readily available to HGV drivers in Staffordshire are shown on the
location plan| (
, 7Mb) and listed in the
facilities table| (
, 29Kb). These facilities can serve all HGV wagons including those of 44-tonne GVW. In addition there are a number of mobile and semi-permanent facilities in the County, primarily serving the A500, A449, A34, A518 and A51. Although these facilities are generally a service well valued by their customers their permanence, hours of opening and ease of safe access are generally less reliable and hence they are not mapped.
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