Supply chain has a long green road to travel, says research
Data compiled by supply chain consultancy Scala Group from major brewers, distillers, retailers and food processors showed room for improvement in vehicle fill, delays during deliveries and fuel consumption.
Scala surveyed participants regarding the activities of thousands of vehicles from 78 fleets on March 12. The findings – Key performance indicators for food and drink supply chains 2009 – were posted on the Department for Transport’s Freight Best Practice website last month.
Core concerns
They show that journey delays remain a core concern. While traffic congestion caused fewer delays than in 2007 – the last time such a survey was conducted – the percentage of delays caused by collection and delivery problems rose from 26 per cent to 39 per cent. This factor generated 78 per cent of time lost through delays in the food chain and 61 per cent of time in the drinks chain.
Delivery time restrictions imposed by councils or customers were reported by just over half of food fleets surveyed and 92 per cent of drinks fleets – a considerable increase on 2007 data. 50 fleets reported annual fines and charges ranging from £30,000 to £77,000, yielding a total cost that ran into millions of pounds.
Fuel use by vehicle type in food and drink distribution had increased in most cases in 2009 compared with 2007, with slight falls for some vehicles. Other areas for improvement highlighted by the survey include use of available height in vehicles and time scheduling for journeys, with more potential for ‘out of hours’ scheduling.
Limited change
“The general thing that comes out of this is that there has been a limited amount of change – the improvement level you get is not great,” said John Perry, managing director of Scala Group.
Back office issues over meshing processor and retailer delivery schedules needed work, said Perry. He also called for logistics firms to back industry initiatives. “I’m not sure logistics companies are being proactive enough.”
Despite making little progress in some areas, there were positive signs in the area of empty running. Just 22.9 per cent of food vehicle kilometres and 19.5 per cent of drinks kilometres were empty – a slight improvement on 2007 figures, which were calculated at 23.7 per cent and 20.3 per cent respectively.
Vehicles also spent less time on roads in 2009, compared with 2007 data. In the wake of the lack of a legally binding agreement in December’s Copenhagen climate change summit, Jon Manners- Bell of research organisation Transport Intelligence said: “We’re back with a 20 per cent reduction on emissions by 2020 over 1990 levels.”
However, even these targets were looking unfeasible unless radical action was taken. He warned the trade to expect this from government
