Improving goods reception for urban delivery

The problems of urban distribution and the need to confront them particularly at a time of escalating petrol costs, is one of the most urgent issues facing retailers and food suppliers today. Hence the conference held recently, organised by the National Materials Handling Centre, and entitled ‘Urban distribution — strategy for the future’. One of the major preoccupations was the conflict of interests which impedes progress; environmental lobbies, central and local planning, EEC legislation. However, this paper by Alan Rushton buries these differences beneath his overriding concern with the practical rather than the ideological aspect of the subject. His point of reference is a study which looked into the problems of high street delivery, producing a scale of importance for the various difficulties encountered, and assessing the likely success of the solutions available.