• Freight Operator Recognition Scheme. This will employ a tiered set of membership levels to address fleet and freight vehicle operational efficiency, improving all areas of sustainable distribution to reduce CO₂ emissions, congestion, collisions and operator costs.

  It will take legal compliance as the base ‘bronze’ level and promote the uptake of best practice covering fuel efficiency, alternative fuels and low carbon vehicles, management of road risk, legal record keeping and reducing penalty charge notices through the higher ‘silver’ and ‘gold’ levels. It will also recognize operator achievements with rewards that encourage operators to raise standards to reduce, in particular, CO₂ emissions and collisions between heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and cyclists.

• Delivery and Servicing Plans. DSPs will be used to increase building operational efficiency by reducing delivery and servicing impacts to premises, specifically CO₂ emissions, congestion and collisions. Contractual relationships between building operators and their supply chain will be used to specify companies committed to sustainable freight distribution, such as Freight Operator Recognition Scheme members, and ensure that they use legal loading locations.

  DSPs aim to reduce delivery trips (particularly during peak periods) and increase availability and use of safe and legal loading facilities, using a range of approaches including consolidation and out-of-hours deliveries. They will eventually be integrated into the travel plan process, and monitored in the same way, Specific consideration will be given to increasing the numbers of freight operators using best practice, and promoting Freight Operator Recognition Scheme membership through appropriate contract award criteria for servicing, maintenance and supply contracts.

• Construction Logistics Plans. CLPs have similar objectives to DSPs, but will be applied to the design and construction phases of premises, specifically to improve construction freight efficiency by reducing CO₂ emissions, congestion and collisions. Ultimately they will be integrated into the travel plan process and each traffic authority’s response to the Network Management Duty to increase road network efficiency by minimizing congestion and therefore emissions caused directly and indirectly by construction-related trips.

• Freight Information Portal. This will offer London, for the first time, a single interface for information on freight between London’s public authorities and freight operators. It will enable the integration of systems and act as a single point of registration for deliveries in London.

  The project aims to reduce operators’ administrative costs and improve access to freight journey planning in the Capital, to support improved operational efficiency, better driver behavior and the use of alternative fuels (including biofuel) and low-carbon vehicles.

  A range of systems and services will be made available to all, with opportunities for Freight Operator Recognition Scheme members to promote fleet and freight vehicle operational efficiency and the uptake of best practice to reduce CO2 emissions and improve safety, particularly by highlighting what can be done to reduce collisions between HGVs and cyclists.

London’s success, and future growth, is dependent upon the efficient movement of goods around the city. We need to improve the efficiency of the freight sector while also reducing the environmental and social impacts of freight transport on London, particularly our contribution to climate change.

—Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London

Progress towards attainment of the vision for sustainable freight distribution in London will be reported annually against seven primary measures. Additionally, a single composite indicator of sustainable freight will be used. The seven primary measures are:

1. Total number of commercial vehicle parking-related Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) per million freight vehicle kilometers;

2. Overall reliability measure for freight;

3. Emissions impact of freight road vehicles, notably CO₂, particulates and NO_x emissions;

4. Freight fly-tipping incidents;

5. Overall number of people killed or seriously injured in collisions involving freight vehicles;

6. The number of thefts linked to freight activities on London roads; and

7. Freight Operator Recognition Scheme membership at each level.

Resources

• London Freight Plan