Tackling congestion

How can innovation help to make the way goods and services move around London and other cities safer, cleaner and more efficient?

Freight and servicing underpins London’s economy. It keeps the shops and hospitals stocked and London’s businesses running.

However, London’s changing consumption patterns also have undesirable consequences for the city. For example, London has seen major growth in van traffic in recent years, with a 39% increase in kilometres travelled by freight and servicing vehicles alone over the past 25 years. This has contributed to the capital’s poor air quality, congestion and road danger.

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London's Freight and Servicing action plan aims to work with boroughs, businesses and the freight and servicing industry to transform how deliveries are made in London

The challenge is to reimagine how London’s finite space can be used to accommodate sustainable modes of transport, while still enabling industry to meet the freight and servicing needs of the capital's growing population and economy. It also draws attention to the need for new ways to protect and create land for logistics and consolidation, as having depots in the right places reduces the miles travelled by freight vehicles and ensures that the trips made into London are more efficient.

Together with a number of other companies, Royal Mail is working with the Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL) to seek innovative solutions that think creatively about ways land or other assets could be used to reduce the adverse impacts of freight and servicing activity, with a focus on making trips more efficient.

Click here if you think you have an idea that can benefit London.