Many food delivery kms are empty running
Date: 18 July 2007
Almost a quarter of all kilometres driven for food deliveries are empty running, according to new research.
A study carried out by Scala Logistics for the Department for Transport found that 24 per cent of food kilometres and 20 per cent of drink kilometres were empty running, Road Transport reports.
Scala looked at 109 fleets and split the freight haulage sector into primary (food and delivery to retailer regional distribution centres - RDCs), secondary (transport of food from RDCs to stores) and tertiary (mainly drinks delivered to pubs and restaurants).
John Perry of Scala commented: "The big primary and secondary suppliers spread the work very well over seven days and particularly make good use of Sunday, while the weekend deliveries are almost non-existent in the tertiary space.
"When we looked at which fleets were operating over 24 hours we found that primary fleets utilised the whole 24 hours, secondary fleets' productivity dropped by about a third on the night shift and tertiary was almost non-existent at night."
This was largely down to constraints placed on deliveries by freight haulage firms into town centres.
Food miles tend to be higher for tertiary deliveries mainly because smaller vehicles are used.
The survey also found that there has been a significant increase in goods delivered to RDCs at weekends because of Sunday trading.
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