Everyone who uses the roads during normal daylight hours knows only too well the delays and frustrations caused by traffic overload. A missed appointment can be re-scheduled but a missed delivery costs serious money for everyone involved with that particular load – retailer, supplier, logistics company, etc.
The Freight Transport Association and the Rail Freight Consortium in 2005 raised with the Government the problems associated with the general ban on deliveries taking place between 11pm and 7 am. This long standing local authority guideline was designed to reduce noise levels for nearby residents. However, the movement of some retailing to out-of-town shopping centres and the growing road congestion during the day led to questions being raised about this.
Recent evidence has emerged now to show that blanket curfews are increasingly inappropriate. A survey of members, who run more than 7,000 outlets, of the British Retail Consortium has identified for the first time the true cost of delivery restrictions. A simple relaxation of one to two hours would save them some £30 million a year! About 60 per cent of the outlets are subject to a ban on delivering at specific times, with high street stores relying on kerbside deliveries the hardest hit.
All this will be a considerable help to distribution companies and their ongoing problems with delays and congestion during the day. However, delivering dry goods is one thing but chilled and frozen products are another! Most delivery points (other than the larger supermarkets) do not have sufficient temperature-controlled storage to cope with goods being left for several hours prior to being placed in the display cabinets, and often staff are not available to deal with the need for quick unloading and storing of temperature-sensitive products. This is where the obvious answer is the range of Olivo portable insulated containers with ease of handling and a high standard of insulation and refrigeration.
The ability to deliver chilled or frozen products when the retail outlet is closed to the public, leaving them there ready in “mini” cold stores for the shop staff to unload when they come in for their normal daytime hours, knowing that the required temperature will be maintained, has a huge benefit in efficiency and cost. Having no refrigerated storage at retail points and also the reduced requirement for refrigerated vehicles brings a considerable saving in energy and reduced running costs.
An outstanding example of this is Selfridges who has its products centrally stored in the Midlands and distributed by DHL. This well-known major quality retailer has a huge store in London’s Oxford Street, two more in Manchester and their newest store in central Birmingham. All areas where night time deliveries of temperature-sensitive produce in Olivo insulated containers are crucial because of local day time traffic problems.
Olivo UK Ltd
Tel: 01604 881051 / 01952 408070
www.olivo.fr
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