The scope for sustainable distribution and servicing in the Regent Street area of Central London LRN 2009 Cardiff Business School 10 September 2009 Marzena Piotrowska, Michael Browne, Darren Briggs, Julian Richardson, Ian Wainwright

Regent Street characteristics Situated in Central London in the borough of City of Westminster and in the heart of London’s West End Occupied mostly by commercial tenants Prime shopping and tourist destination In 2008 over £4.5 billion was spent in the West End, making it the UK's top retail centre

Tenants in Regent Street Retail outlets Fashion and shoe stores Cafés and restaurants Healthcare and toiletries stores Jewellers Banks Luggage and leather goods stores Opticians Electronic and electrical goods stores Children / Toy stores Sportswear stores Home furnishings stores Mixed goods store Non-retail businesses Accountants Business Consultants Financial Advisors Legal Firms Recruitment Advisors Medical Institutions Travel Agents Other ( i.e. retailers’ Head Offices, publishers)

Planned Regent Street improvements Wider pavements Reduced traffic volumes Off-site consolidation centre serving local businesses

Aims of the study Gain better understanding of freight transport and servicing activities taking place in the Regent Street area Identify viable ways in which the existing operations can be made more sustainable

Research methodology Tenant survey – a questionnaire completed by retail and office tenants Observation and vehicle count survey Driver interviews

Tenant survey Total of 484 questionnaires were distributed to: Retailers – 122 questionnaires Office tenants – 362 questionnaires Overall response rate – 21% Designed to gather information about freight and service related activities taking place at tenants’ premises

Observations and vehicle count Conducted at 14 sites in Regent Street area over a 48 hour period Started at 07:00 hours on 20 January 2009 and finished at 07:00 hours on the 22 January 2009 Total of 2134 vehicle counts were recorded Collected data and information helped to understand freight and service related activities taking place in the surveyed area.

Driver interviews Combined with observations and vehicle count at 14 sites in Regent Street area Total of 314 drivers were interviewed which accounts for about 15% of the total vehicle count Drivers asked about key facts related to their journey to the Regent Street area

Freight and service vehicles Vehicle TypeCount% LGVs HGVs58429 Other1688 Total

LGVs & HGVs – Trip purpose LGVsHGVs Count Collection Delivery Servicing Waste Collection Other

Deliveries to Regent Street area SectorPercent of Survey Data Hospitality39% Business28% Retail19% Consumables9% Servicing4% Other1%

Arrivals of LGVs and HGVs

Deliveries and Services– activities during the day Arrival Time Deliveries (%)Services (%) Between: 07:00-10:00 hrs Morning Peak41%32% Between: 10:00-16:00 hrs39%34% Between: 16:00-19:00 hrs Evening Peak6%8% Between: 19:00-00:00 hrs1%7% Between: 00:00-06:00 hrs13%19%

Dwell Time of LGVs and HGVs LGVsHGVs Dwell Time (mins) Number of Vehicles Percentage (%) Number of Vehicles Percentage (%) Total

Dwell time by trip purpose - LGVs Dwell Time (mins) DeliveryServicingCollection Waste Collection 0-540%19%39%67% %50%53%25% %16%8%6% 41+2%15%0%2%

Conclusions Significant number of freight and servicing vehicles LGVs accounting for 63% of all recorded counts and dominating all operations except for waste collections Majority of vehicles involved in delivery operations Service trips carried out mainly by LGVs Little activity outside 9am – 5pm window – potential scope for out of hours deliveries