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The construction industry currently generates circa 35% of all daytime Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) traffic in London. This produces a significant amount of road freight movement resulting in concerns for safety, congestion and air quality. The industry faces a challenge of finding viable alternatives to reduce the volume of construction traffic in order to mitigate its negative impacts. A Construction Logistics Plan (CLP) provides the framework for understanding, managing and mitigating construction vehicle activity into and out of proposed development sites.
Transport for London (TfL) commissioned Arup to update the existing CLP guidance and develop a bespoke training programme to engage the industry, and provide adoption of consistent construction logistics methodology, to embed best practice construction logistics planning.
Project Summary
281,000 freight journeys a day across the capital
87%of London's boroughs engaged in the initiative
550+training experiences created
Transforming industry - it begins with the individuals
A CLP provides the framework for understanding, managing and mitigating construction vehicle activity into and out of proposed development sites. Transforming industry culture and traditional processes is not easy, therefore CLP training must be successfully delivered and embedded at the individual level before the whole industry and wider society can benefit.
Change will only occur as far and as fast as its collective individuals are willing to change. Recognising that CLPs have existed for nearly a decade but with relatively poor adoption; with London’s growth forecast to continue apace, we were commissioned to update the existing guidance and develop a bespoke training programme.
With a firm belief that people are pivotal to the effective application of a CLP, our training bridges the gaps in the understanding of construction freight issues amongst TfL and borough offices, consultants, contractors and developers. Creating opportunities to engage and communicate shared experiences between these distinct groups, often for the first time, was a corner-stone of the approach that we took.
Designing for the individual - balanced training
The development and promotion of CLP training is centred around culture change in the construction industry and embedding CLPs into everyday practice. The training is formally upskilling a vital part of the construction sector, raising awareness of construction freight challenges within London and ultimately creates a culture change that brings logistics considerations to the earliest stage of the development and planning process.
The adoption of a consistent construction logistics methodology and the creation of a recognised construction logistics practitioner qualification has resulted in professionalising a whole sector. Our stakeholder engagement and continuous open feedback methodology allowed for appropriate changes to be made throughout the development phase and ensured the team were continuously improving the engagement process for the training modules.
“Arup helped develop and deliver a culture change programme, to embed best practice knowledge on CLP and elicit behaviour change within the construction freight industry. They understood our requirements and engaged an industry group of specialists to co-design the training programme. The uptake of these courses has been phenomenal and the feedback received positive, as a result we are developing a further day of training with Arup. ” Peter Binham TfL Freight & Fleet Programme Manager
Through balanced training and introducing lasting behaviour change our work with TfL will result in increased engagement and widespread improvement of standards. The blended learning framework enhanced learning experience and promoted the transfer of learning. Understanding that individuals have diverse learning styles, a balanced variety of teaching methods and materials were incorporated into the workshops.
Drawing from our knowledge of delivering training, change management and organisation psychology we delivered a comprehensive and engaging training programme to stimulate and encourage knowledge sharing of best practice.
Raising the standards across industry
Deployed effectively, CLPs can reduce the volume and impact of construction traffic by up to a third. By understanding and managing construction vehicle activity we can reduce the impact on residents and businesses by addressing congestion, improving air quality, reducing noise pollution, and improving road safety. Robert Missen (Head of Unit, European Commission, DG MOVE) said “London's approach to develop a construction logistics plan with the industry is key to their success. London has built up a lot of know-how in urban freight planning, which they readily share with other cities and industry stakeholders across Europe.”
Awareness has been raised and industry increasingly sees the value of CLPs. Last year TfL were presented with the award "Innovation in Construction Logistics policies in urban areas" as part of CIVITAS, an EU programme with a network of cities dedicated to cleaner, better transport in Europe and beyond.
Globally there is interest beyond Europe with Australia and the United States, notably New York, recognising that this vital sector of the industry requiring upskilling and the positive long-term future effects arising from addressing the impacts of this industry. Working with TfL we are facing the challenges of construction logistics in a holistic and comprehensive way. Tellingly, TfL has seen the strong engagement from the sector for the two one-day training courses and appointed us to deliver a third ‘Advanced’ training day.
