The Australian Logistics Council (ALC) has called for Australia’s urban planners to bear freight in mind when designing cities. Speaking at the recent Online Retail Logistics 2017, ALC Managing Director Michael Kilgariff noted that the country’s cities are not freight friendly, as a result of planning systems that fail to properly account for freight movement.
He added that the problem of complicated CBD deliveries is set to get worse unless remedial action is taken.
“Australia is already one of most highly urbanised countries in the world, and a significant proportion of the residential and employment growth projected to occur in the years ahead will be heavily concentrated in CBD areas,” the ALC said in a statement.
“It follows that the larger our cities grow, the larger the freight task gets. Accordingly, if we wish to grow our cities and ensure their continuing functionality and amenity, we must adopt policies which can support that increasing freight task. “
The ALC recognised that the default instinct in many Australian urban planning systems is to adopt policies that impede urban freight delivery, especially in CBD areas, by limiting access for heavy vehicles.
CBD delivery is made more cumbersome and costly, the ALC added, due to a lack of adequate street loading zones, as well as new residential and commercial buildings with poor (or non-existent) freight delivery facilities.
“Perversely, the growing difficulty of freight delivery in Australian cities is occurring during a period where growth in e-commerce is fuelling expectations of faster delivery timeframes and lower shipping costs,” the ALC said.
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