A big problem highlighted by a freight forwarder based in Dover with 30 years experience of crossing on/out of EU to Balkan States, is that a massive % of trunk haulage work was delivered by cabotage using trucks and drivers from EU27 when they were in the UK between tipping an imported load and lifting an export. His EU26 connections basically said we’re not coming over to have trucks & drivers stood possibly for days, when we’ve enough seamless work over here, and the Irish Land Bridge (back-loads & imports) has re-aligned to Co Cork-France ferries, and Lo-Lo rather than Ro-Ro rather than have a driver and tractor sitting idle on a boat for 18-23 hours, and at a stroke, boosting the supply of drivers & trucks in RoI

I’ve also looked at some contemporary ‘diary’ videos, showing the inefficient use of the resource of drivers & tractor units – where over 50% of a shift is is spent working as a labourer, loading, unloading, re-balancing a part load, actually finding the site, and safely getting in to tip (Raul689 sat for an age waiting for someone on a site to move a car parked right at the gates making it impossible to get in)

However 40 years ago I worked with a system that saw all HGV drivers working locally, never more than 25 miles from base, always home after a shift, and tipping and lifting 4-5 loads a shift (this was malt whisky, and after loading the tanks/boxes had to be customs checked & sealed, but the driver & tractor didn’t wait for this, keeping their productivity up). It went by rail for the 300 mile round trip to the blending & bottling plant – 75mph vs 56 mph, with no 45 minute breaks, and no overnight ‘lodging’- we now see daily scheduled trains, with up to 80 truck-loads, some on journeys as short as 36 miles (as Malcolm Group moves trains from the Port of Grangemouth to their distribution hub near Glasgow Airport)

For smaller items (roll cages of ironmongery &c) there 100 mph electric units with slots to operate and terminals to unload at, ready to roll, and an amusing tale aligning with Michael Barrett’s work in London with TfL & CLOCS – faced with an urgent order for final fix door hardware the wholesaler was not going to sent the artic in to the city centre, and instead grabbed the local cycle logistics operator for a rapid , and lower cost delivery. Done similar myself in Birmingham, needed some key tools – ordered collection from Wholesaler at 12.00, waiting for me at site office 12.45

This is a wake-up call to really look closely at how we move construction materials in & out, possibly using the same vehicle & driver, and a module based on the 20ft half height container (capacity up to 20Tons) deliveries tipped as a secured stillage – minimising damage & waste and reducing the time & risk of shuttling around with a forklift/loader in the street. When empty the same container can be used for waste, and the 4-axle 32T rigid would probably be the platform for a skeletal delivery system that can be used for all types of traffic (Retail deliveries at night, construction by day) plus safety wins of loading waste without a truck cab to spill it on, and payload gains with the absence of the tipping gear & chassis reinforcement

On one major job, which I observed on trips to London, had a 50+ truck 3000T/day muck shift with 100Km though Central London traffic (3 trips/day/truck, and up to 40 trucks lined back along the street from 07.00) this could have converted to 2-3 trains per day, with a 2-3 Km shuttle using 3-6 trucks – possibly with a dedicated ‘haul road’ excluding other traffic from site to an existing siding or to the water (500-1000T per barge on the river for most ‘river cities’ or 60-100T per barge on canals – with some neat detail in the number of places where a canal runs for tens of miles without locks, and replicating the concept of the Falkirk wheel can see 150-200 Tons of boat & water raised with minimal water used, for the energy required to boil a kettle.

As a PS it is worth having a rigid with air suspension when delivering demountable bodies – the clue is in the feature fitted to many buses ‘Ferry Lift’

Happy to receive comments – always something to learn

Dave H – another winning stallion from 1952