Short-term thinking lacks logic

Hello again!
 
Short-term thinking lacks logic - my latest musings for the Diss Express;

https://www.dissexpress.co.uk/

@Diss_Express

 

Orwell Bridge Closures, Logistics Sector Resilience and Highways England questions

Long time no post ......

Here's a note I sent out to interested parties earlier today;

Orwell Bridge closures: shows sector’s flexibility but Highways England needs to improve

The managing director and founder of one of Suffolk’s most successful logistics and warehousing firms has praised the flexibility of the county’s businesses after three closures of the Orwell Bridge in as many weeks.

Steve Britt, who founded Debenham-based Anchor Storage with his father in 1987, has totalled up the costs of delayed deliveries and additional storage costs from this year’s closures and puts them at tens of thousands of pounds to his business and that of his clients.

Anchor Storage provides a range of different services for both exporters and importers, including ambient storage, transport solutions, import freight forwarding and internet fulfilment.

“However, the real story of these closures is way in which local businesses, including our own, has adapted and thought ahead both to minimise losses and not to put additional pressure on Ipswich’s roads.

“The Port of Felixstowe has perfected its procedures ahead of the types of weather likely to trigger Highways England to close the Bridge and ensures that vehicle bookings for either the collection or delivery of cargo containers are restricted to minimise congestion at the port. 

“Equally, local hauliers have become smarter at making their deliveries at different times of the day and night to ensure they are not caught up in gridlocked roads.”

Steve says that Anchor Storage’s own approach has also become even more flexible including the laying on of early and/or late shifts to ensure that delayed shipments can still be received or dispatched when congestion eases. 

“We all need Highways England to show the same level of imagination and forward planning and as a matter of urgency implement a separation system for high-sided vehicles and earlier use of traffic message boards on both the A14 and A12 leading into Ipswich.”

“If the private sector can adapt and change its ways of working, it worries me that Highways England seems both slow and reluctant to do so.”

ENDS