The inaugural Quiet Cities Global Summit took place on 25 and 26 November 2014 at Twickenham Stadium, London.
The 200-strong audience consisted of logistics operators, local authority environmental health officers and transport planners, retailers, acousticians, consultants, academics, government officials, and UK and international plcs.
Delegates and speakers debated why there is a need for retiming deliveries; how deliveries can be made quietly; and how collaboration between all stakeholders is key to enabling more out-of-hours deliveries to take place.
Summit highlights
Highlights included a keynote speech from Sainsbury’s Logistics Director Richard Fleming; Lord Digby Jones explaining why consumerism is driving the need for goods to be delivered 24-hours a day; how to create the business case for retiming deliveries; the unveiling of DHL’s ‘City Safe, City Quiet’ gas-powered truck; and the launch of Transport for London’s ‘Getting the Timing Right’ guidance.
The proven benefits of taking truck journeys out of the busy day time peak, and moving them onto the shoulders of the day were also reiterated throughout the summit. Cleaner air, less congestion, safer roads and better stock availability are all benefits that are up for the taking if deliveries can be retimed.
Quiet Cities was organised by Motor Transport magazine in partnership with Transport for London, DHL and Route Monkey.
Noise Abatement Society, Freight Transport Association, and Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport also supported the event.