CILT has responded to the call for evidence from the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) on its study into freight. This was prepared through our Freight and Logistics Policy Forum. 

The Forum welcomed the study and repeated the theme of its earlier reply to the NIC that “The NIC should take an holistic approach in considering how to deliver its aims, from the way proposals for transport schemes are planned and assessed to the way performance is measured, new technology is provided and the way users pay for transport.” 

This approach will focus investment on delivering the widest possible benefits to all members of society, help promote changes in the way people and goods use transport so that networks and cities function more efficiently and ensure charges are fair.

In this context we pointed out the fact that freight is an exclusively private sector commercial operation that runs on public sector road and rail networks; it is constrained by that capacity and land use planning which may impede its access to suitable sites for terminals and warehouses: ports, rail, distribution centres. 

We get the freight system productivity and performance that the current network enables. There is a need to think creatively about new networks that will transform the current paradigms and help resolve economic, congestion and pollution issues.

In this context, CILT stressed the need to consider road user charging that is differentiated by time of day, land use planning to safeguard logistics sites on rail and in urban situations, mandating consolidation initiatives and increased use of rail freight based on capacity release from digital signalling.

The opportunities from digital technologies and alternative fuels provide a generational opportunity to transform our freight and logistics landscape but it will require powerful public-private collaboration.

To read the full submission by CILT click here.