Delivery & servicing study for London Bridge

London Bridge is one of central London’s busiest areas and is experiencing unprecedented economic growth. The excellent existing transport infrastructure, £6bn improvement scheme at London Bridge rail station, and access to the Thames has placed London Bridge at the forefront of future economic and residential growth.

The area’s increasing popularity and importance within central London means increasing levels of traffic and associated congestion and noise and air pollution. In 2016, Team London Bridge Business Improvement District (BID) and Southwark Council commissioned Steer to help them understand how delivery and servicing activity contributed to these issues at London Bridge, and how this activity could be better managed by local stakeholders and the business community to ensure that the area remains a popular place to work, live and visit.

The Steer project team worked with seven of the major landowners, estate management companies and occupiers in London Bridge (EY, GLA (City Hall), King’s College, Network Rail (London Bridge station), News UK, The Shard and Southwark Council to develop evidence-led and tailored Delivery and Servicing Plans (DSPs).

We supported these stakeholders with the collection of data relating to delivery and servicing activity at their business or within their building. We analysed the data to look for ways in which the activity could be better managed, developing robust action plans in partnership with the stakeholder teams. These plans set out actions to reduce the overall level of activity taking place (for example, by consolidating suppliers and bulk-buying to reduce the frequency of trips) to ensure activity took place at less congested times on the network (overnight if possible) and to ensure that zero or low emission vehicles were used as often as possible.

Successes and outcomes

The DSPs identified actions to be progressed at the estate or individual business level. Steer made separate recommendations for actions to be led at the area-wide level, either by Team London Bridge or Southwark Council. These included a recommendation for further development of Team London Bridge’s consolidated waste and recycling service.

Since the conclusion of the initial project, we have supported Team London Bridge with the set-up and management of a quarterly ‘Freight Forum’, through which progress against the original actions is discussed and reviewed.

EY and the GLA have reduced the volume of personal deliveries received at their premises within the London Bridge area. London Bridge rail station has worked with tenants to encourage them to use a single supplier for essential and non-differentiated items such as milk and cleaning supplies.