Supplementary memorandum by Exel (RH 37A)
1. WORKING
TIME DIRECTIVE
The Sub-committee raised the important issue of the
Working Time Directive and the impact of night working. This is
an issue that not only has immediate operational implications
but could also initiate long-term strategic changes to the industry
that could radically affect the transport infrastructure over
the next ten years. The following explanation covers most of the
salient points.
The majority of inter-depot trunking is carried
out at night to minimise delivery lead-time. This philosophy of
covering stem mileage at night, and carrying out local collection
and delivery during the day is a well-tested and proven one and
is becoming more important as congestion during the day increases.
Depot location has been fine-tuned to take account of the road
network and drivers' hours regulations and, from the point of
view of efficiency, travelling time between depots makes best
use of the present legal driving time of 4.5 hours before a break
is required.
Under the proposed rules the daily working time
of night workers is not to exceed 8 hours on average over two
months, and must never exceed 10 hours on any occasion. This in
itself is a disincentive to take on night-time working as day
workers can work a maximum of 11 hours plus 45 minutes rest.
To maximise a double shift under the new proposals
would entail workers ending shifts at 0200 hrs and starting shifts
at 0300 hrs, which is not a problem in itself but research in
the USA confirms that more Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) and incidents
occur the further away shift start times are from 6.00 am-9.00
amor 6.00 pm-9.00 pm. Natural patterns and the body clock, it
is reported are more disturbed, resulting in fatigue. It is therefore
not only anti-social but less safe to work shift patterns starting
between these times. Further irregularity of start times if scheduled,
is also a factor that disturbs sleep patterns, enhances fatigue
and increases the likelihood of accidents. The current arrangements
typically have the day worker starting at0700 hrs and the night
worker at 1900 hrs, times that are much more physiologically and
socially acceptable.
Assuming that operators tried to work around
the regulations then this would have a number of other effects:
— At the time of least congestion on
the roads (0200 hrs to 0300 hrs) there would be fewer HGVs on
the road;
— Day drivers would be at the mid-point
of their shift between 0800 hrs-0900 hrs at the time of current
maximum congestion;
— Where operators cannot work around
the regulations in this way, due to fixed customer requirements
eg Chilled fresh produce, then additional costs would be incurred;
— There would be difficulty scheduling
vehicles for day and night operations because of the differing
shift lengths and it might prove too complicated to share vehicles
between more than two drivers thus reducing efficiency;
— It is likely that in addition to
the need for extra drivers, there would also be a requirement
for extra vehicles leading to greater congestion.
Exel believes operators will work around the
WTD for efficiency and that this will compromise safety.
2. RAIL
Exel is keen to use rail wherever it can be
seen to provide customers with a better solution to their supply
chain needs.
Exel has been using rail in this way for nearly
15 years for Rover by transporting body pressings from the production
site in Swindon to Longbridge. This has taken an average 1,000
lorry journeys a week off the roads—a total of 4.73 million
trips so far. More recently Exel has developed special vehicles
and run rail pilot schemes in the food and chemical industries
to demonstrate rail's viability to customers. However, there are
great difficulties in utilising the rail solution in today's commercial
environment.
In Europe Rail is too complex to be viable because
of different guages, legislation, working practices and cultures.
eg It's taken eight months for TERFF (Trans European Rail Freight
Freeway part of DG VII) to compute the costs for a route from
London to Sopron in Hungary.
In the UK Exel has a major problem with the
competency of the existing providers in terms of their service
standards, cost transparency and their ability to provide a feasible
market solution for consumable goods.
When the hauliers are often working for margins
of as little as 1 per cent or 2 per cent, a phone call to a rail
company questioning a quote has been known to produce an immediate
(same phone conversation) cost reduction of 20 per cent. Either
they do not know what their costs are, or the price is being loaded.
It makes rail a difficult option to include when exploring supply
chain solutions for customers.
Exel is regularly asked to submit major £250
million contract bids in 30 days. Often a rail solution could
be part of the supply chain solution that may be required to fulfil
one of these contract bids and Exel needs to get costings and
information quickly. One such recent instance involved an application
for a Freight Facilities Grant to open a new terminal at Burton-on-Trent
for an existing rail-using customer. Using a rail solution in
this one instance could take up to 15,000 lorry journeys off the
roads, but the DETR advised Exel that there would be a four month
delay while the application was processed. If rail is to be considered
seriously in the integrated transport equation then a fast track
mechanism is needed for it to be a viable proposition.
Exel continues to be actively involved in the
rail debate and is short-listed for a prize[39]
from the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) for the funding of a rail
project which we believe will bring an imaginative, transparent
and inclusive solution for freight purchasers. It utilises some
of the new technology that Exel has developed over the last three
years to improve efficiency and service levels.
3. TECHNOLOGY
Over the last three years demands on the supply
chain have changed rapidly as business has moved to make itself
more financially efficient by eliminating stock from the supply
chain. This has led to changing patterns of production to meet
the flexibility demanded by this minimum stock policy, more frequent
deliveries in smaller quantities to point of sale, and new channels
to market.
Exel recognised that this evolving demand for
its services would need the support of some advanced technology
to maintain and improve efficiency without compromising the other
pressures of cost, visibility, congestion and the environment
and so three years ago it instigated a research programme.
The resulting, new, business process has revolutionised
transport planning by enabling fleets to be managed across multiple
sites and customers while providing total visibility and real-time
information flow for each of them. Its success is drawn from people
and technology working intelligently together to provide integrated
solutions across the whole supply chain.
The new technology has one objective—to
get every vehicle on every journey running fully loaded every
time. Over the two years that it has been in operation, it has
produced results (see below) that if applied to the UK plc transport
fleet would have significant effects:
— 11 per cent reduction in kilometres
run and the associated fuel used;
— 20 per cent increase in driver efficiency;
— 26 per cent reduction in tractor
units utilised.
Exel strongly believes that technology has had,
and will continue to have, material effect on the issues of efficiency,
congestion and the environment, both in terms of road freight
and rail freight.
April 2000
39 Excel now awarded £2.1 million to go ahead
with this project. Back
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