Preparations for a government survey to monitor the performance of food and drink delivery vehicles in 2009 are well underway.

In spring 2007, the performance of 9,000 goods vehicles delivering food and drink was monitored for one day and reported in order to provide robust key performance indicators for the sectors. The survey was conducted by Scala Logistics Consulting on behalf of the department for transport (DfT), and preparations are already well advanced for a similar activity in 2009.

The survey is part of the department’s ongoing efforts to measure and record vehicle efficiencies, and provides operators with sound, reliable performance indicators.

On March 8, 2007, drivers and managers of 9,000 goods vehicles, from 113 commercial fleets, carefully monitored on an hourly basis the performance of their vehicles on the road. The vehicles involved in the survey covered a distance of 1.3 million km. Companies received individual reports setting out the performance of their fleets compared with each other, and with the national performance.

The results of the 2007 survey were published in the Freight Best Practice Benchmarking Guide ‘Key Performance Indicators for Food and Drink Supply Chains’. This report can be downloaded from www.freightbestpractice.org.uk

The 2009 survey will again compare vehicles within primary, secondary and tertiary transport activities, but there will be some changes this time, mainly aimed at making data gathering easier for participants.

The survey will again focus on five key performance indicators - vehicle fill, timeutilisation, empty running, fuel consumption and vehicle delays.

The process for the survey will be similar to the one in 2007. Scala will organise workshops to encourage participation and to explain what is involved, and the data that will be required. Prior to the survey there will be further workshops aimed at supporting those who will do the data gathering.

Initial industry consultation workshops are planned for October 22 in Hemel Hempstead and October 23 in Wakefield. Several major companies have agreed to attend these and participation is welcome from manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and logistics companies.