Heathrow Freight Movement Study - September 2009
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Heathrow Freight Movement Study September 2009
Executive Summary
AECOM 626 – WLA Heathrow Freight Movement Study – Executive Summary 3
Executive Summary
The Heathrow Freight Movement Study
Aims and Scope
Heathrow Airport is the UK’s largest airport in terms of passenger numbers and tonnage
handled. In 2007/8 Heathrow handled 68 million passengers and around 1.3 million tonnes of
cargo and around 83,300 tonnes of post office mail. The majority (94%) of cargo at Heathrow
is carried in the belly-hold of scheduled passenger aircraft with the remainder carried in all-
cargo aircraft.
This study, commissioned in February 2009 by BAA, SEEDA, TfL and WLA aims to quantify
the freight and servicing vehicle activity associated with Heathrow Airport in order to inform
future decision making on surface access and to ensure that freight and servicing
considerations are taken into account in that decision making. The specific aims of the study
are to:
• Quantify the scale and impacts of freight and servicing activity within a study area
bounded by the A40/A406/A316/M3/A322/A329/M4/A404/M40 and understand local
economic factors
• Forecast Future movements and impacts to 2020
• Inform surface access planning, freight and servicing efficiencies and impact reduction
measures
The study scope includes:
• Air cargo (airlines, cargo handling agents, freight forwarders, trucked air freight)
• Courier/express mail
• Airport servicing (airport terminals, hotels, offices and other premises)
• Aircraft servicing (catering, cleaning, maintenance etc.)
Data Collection and Growth Scenarios
The study has relied on extensive research, data collection and data analysis. This data has
been obtained from a wide variety of sources including desk-based research, stakeholder
workshops, an on-line survey, detailed discussions with industry operators and roadside goods
vehicle counts. In addition, supplementary data was obtained from sources such as the
Highways Agency, BAA, ICAO, CAA, DfT and relevant London Boroughs.
In addition to detailed Control Post data provided by BAA, AECOM’s bespoke goods vehicle
surveys (known as Specialised Goods Vehicle Counts or SGVCs) were undertaken at sixteen
sites in a cordon screen-line around Heathrow during March/April 2009. These surveys
provided detail of freight and servicing activity in the Heathrow area as well as providing
important additional detail on operators, vehicle types and vehicle ages. The operator details
collected as part of these surveys helped the study team to identify suitable companies to take
part in an on-line survey which collected detailed freight and servicing activity information such
as tonnage per vehicle, consignment types and origins/destinations of loads.AECOM 626 – WLA Heathrow Freight Movement Study – Executive Summary 4
Primary Study Stakeholders
DfT BIFA
BAA London Borough of Hounslow
Slough Borough Council AICES
London Borough of Hillingdon West London FQP
RHA Slough Borough Council
DfT FTA
WLA TfL
SEEDA
Further detailed information from specific operators across the whole spectrum of freight and
servicing activity at Heathrow (cargo handling, airport servicing and aircraft servicing) was then
collected via twenty-five ‘Freight Interest Surveys’ which consisted mainly of face-face meetings
and site visits with operators to understand their operation in more detail and obtain further
quantitative data on the nature of their freight and servicing activities related to Heathrow
Airport. The Freight Interest Surveys were backed up by a telephone ‘Warehouse Survey’ of
six of the main Heathrow cargo handling agents to which provided detailed operational
information from these cargo operators.
The data from these various primary and secondary sources was then normalised and cross-
checked (validated) to create a robust base data set as part of the development of AECOM’s
Heathrow Freight Forecast Model. SGVC and Control Post data was validated using Automatic
Traffic Count (ATC) data and other count data supplied by Hillingdon Council, DfT and HA. A
further validation process was undertaken using primary data on vehicle movements and
vehicle fill collected from local freight interests such as freight forwarders, cargo agents and
warehouse operators. Data from DfT’s Continuous Survey of Roads Goods Transport
(CSRGT) was used to validate the proportion of non-Heathrow movements estimated in the
study counts.
Furthermore, the effects of the economic downturn on aviation activity was also considered.
The majority of companies surveyed reported some decrease in trips, tonnages handled and
vehicle fill. However, over the next 12 months 70% of companies expect to see either no
change or a small to medium increase in activity. This optimism reflects rapid recovery from
past aviation downturns, with volumes and growth trends being quickly restored to their former
levels. A review of Heathrow air transport data shows that growth seems to be relatively stable
and inelastic over the medium to long term in terms of its relationship to economic factors and
therefore we see Heathrow returning to previously anticipated levels of throughput growth by
about 2010. The resilience of the sector therefore gives us confidence in the forecasted further
growth in Air Traffic Movements at Heathrow.
Local Economic Factors
Some 100 industrial estates exist within a 5 mile radius of the airport and it is estimated that
some 40% of occupiers on these sites are directly related to airport activity, rising to 50% on the
south side adjacent to the Cargo Centre.
The presence of Heathrow Airport can be seen by the dominance of transport and
communication activities in the Heathrow area. According to the 2007 data around two thirds
(almost 57,500) of all jobs in the area are in this sector, with almost 52,000 of these jobs in the
air transport and other supporting air transport activities sub-sectors. The latest BAA
employment survey indicates in 2008/9 some 335 airport related companies employed over
68,000 staff. Employment in transport and communication activities is also over-represented in
the wider district area, accounting for over a fifth of all jobs in the area compared to around 7%
of all jobs in Greater London. The Heathrow area is under-represented in all other sectors
compared to the regional averages. However, financial and business services and distribution,
hotels and restaurants are significant sectors, both accounting for over 10% of total
employment in the area (around 11,400 and 9,900 jobs respectively).AECOM 626 – WLA Heathrow Freight Movement Study – Executive Summary 5
The indicator Gross Value Added (GVA) per
employee is often used as a measure of the
productivity of a sector compared against other parts
of the economy. Overall, GVA per head across the
key freight sectors is estimated to be an average of
£39,550 per employee, some 12% higher than the
average for the UK economy as a whole. Productivity
is highest in the cargo handling sector, where GVA
per head is estimated at £62,800 per employee (80%
above the UK average). Overall the freight sector is
estimated to generate a GVA of £720 million in the
Airport growth and demand for logistics local Heathrow Villages Ward area and over £1,187
warehousing is intrinsically linked
.market for cargo warehousing has been million in the wider District.
Freight and Servicing Activity and Impacts
Following validation and extrapolation to a year of the activity data collected by the study it is
estimated that there are some 1.9 million (one way) annual freight and servicing-related trips
currently to Heathrow Airport. Nearly two-thirds of these trips are related to cargo and mail
activity, with terminal and office servicing accounting for 13% and aircraft servicing accounting
for 23% of all trips. Each long haul flight generates roughly 9 landside cargo and servicing
vehicle movements.
Freight and
Deliveries Direct to Shuttling from
Servicing Vehicles Direct to
Study Area Study Area Total
to the Airport per Airport
Warehouses Warehouses
Annum
Terminal and office 238,233
48,768 31,498 157,966
servicing (13%)
1,229,683
Cargo and mail 632,375 456,050 141,258
(65%)
430,430
Aircraft servicing 96,743 294,863 38,824
(23%)
Grand Total 777,887 782,411 338,048 1,898,346
Estimated Heathrow Related Annual Vehicle Movements by Type (One Way)
The estimated total Heathrow related freight and servicing vehicle kms (two way) are around
247 million kms per annum and due to the greater distances travelled by cargo and mail
activities these account for 90% of all vehicle kms. Some 53 million kms (22%) are undertaken
by Heathrow related freight and servicing vehicles within the study area.
Additional modelling activity undertaken as part of this study includes the AECOM External
Costs Model which is able to calculate and forecast external transport impacts in a monetised
form. These impacts cover congestion, infrastructure wear, air quality, accidents, noise and
CO2. The External Costs Model estimates £226 million of external costs in 2009 on a national
scale attributable to Heathrow-related freight and servicing activity and £51 million within the
Study Area. The single largest cost impact under current valuation practices is congestion (65%
of the total) and smallest is air quality (5% of the total).AECOM 626 – WLA Heathrow Freight Movement Study – Executive Summary 6
Whilst there is no doubt that Heathrow freight
and servicing represents a significant level of
commercial activity, it must been set against
the context of overall vehicular activity within
the Study Area, of which it represents 0.4% of
total vehicles, 4.9% of HGVs and 1.6% of vans.
In relation to the study survey cordon screen-
line Heathrow related freight and servicing
activity represents 46% of all HGV activity,
23% of van activity and 5.7% of all motor
vehicle activity.
Non Heathrow truck traffic represents the
overwhelming majority of HGVs in the study area.
Freight and Servicing Activity Forecasts
Based on the knowledge gained as part of this study on existing freight and servicing vehicle
volumes, types and patterns of activity The Heathrow Freight Forecast Model developed for the
study is able to forecast future freight and servicing vehicle volumes for a variety of different
future scenarios at Heathrow. These forecasts are achieved through the development of
relationships within the model between freight and servicing activity types and various airport
growth parameters. For example the model contains a relationship between cargo vehicle
volumes and forecast cargo tonnage arriving or departing on aircraft at the airport. There is a
further relationship within the model between aircraft catering vehicles and forecast aircraft
movements at the airport.
Using 1.9 million one-way trips as the 2009 base case, freight and servicing activity to 2020
was forecast against the following three growth scenarios:
• Scenario A: Airport development within existing limits with Air Transport Movements
(ATMs) capped at 480,000 per annum;
• Scenario B: Airport grows to around 605,000 ATMs per annum by about 2022 with the long
haul proportion of the total ATMs growing in line with historic experience; and
• Scenario C: Airport grows to around 605,000 ATMs per annum with the short haul
proportion of the total ATMs growing at the expense of long haul ATMs reflecting the
potential need to artificially influence the ATM mix in order to ensure that environmental
limits are met.
For each of the above scenarios the model forecasts for the 2020 annual number of freight and
servicing trips to Heathrow Airport are as follows:
• Scenario A: 2.1 million – an increase of 10% on 2009
• Scenario B: 2.5 million – an increase of 34% on 2009
• Scenario C: 2.4 million – an increase of 29% on 2009
External Costs Tonnes CO2
Freight/Servicing of Airport- Released by
2020 Vehicles Freight/Servicing
Related Freight Airport-Related
Forecasts Vehicle-kms
One Way Trips /Servicing Freight/Servicing
Vehicles Vehicles
Scenario A 2,085,778 276,931,432 £251,021,000 174,708
(9.8%) (12%) (11%) (13%)
Scenario B 2,544,765 344,378,940 £312,553,000 217,878
(34%) (40%) (38%) (41%)
Scenario C 2,446,809 326,619,577 £296,473,000 206,465
(28.8%) (32%) (31%) (33%)
Total Heathrow Freight and Servicing Vehicle Generation and External Cost EstimatesAECOM 626 – WLA Heathrow Freight Movement Study – Executive Summary 7
Scenario B where ATMs grow to around 605,000 per annum by 2022 with the long haul
proportion growing in line with historic experience represents the greatest freight and servicing
traffic impact with an increase in vehicle trips of 34% and increases in vehicle kms and external
costs of around 40%.
Options and Interventions
Following stakeholder and industry discussions and two workshops undertaken as part of the
study a number of options/interventions have been identified to either help improve the
efficiency of the industry or help reduce the impact of the industry on the local community. Many
of these interventions were devised to try and address some of the major pinch-points and
issues raised by stakeholders and consultees. In particular these focussed on:
• Control Post congestion;
• Delays in freight collections and deliveries at the Cargo Centre; and
• Peak time congestion on the M4 and M25.
Issues relating to transport security and
lorry parking were not raised as problems.
Interestingly lack of provision of public
transport for employees to access the
airport, particularly the Cargo Centre, from
areas to the West of the airport were
raised.
Wide-ranging options include ideas such
as load consolidation and collaboration,
driver training and fuel management,
performance management, infrastructure
re-design and rationalisation, modal shift
and the use of alternative fuels. The
The design of the cargo centre is now out-moded.
impacts (external costs) of a number of
these options have been modelled using
the External Costs Model and Freight Forecast Model to identify which options might result in
the most significant benefits.
Establishment and use of shared services Improved back loading
TRANSPORT for inter-airport trunking operations
COLLABORATION Upstream consolidation of food supplies to Consolidation of newsprint deliveries
AND THE USE OF flight kitchens
SHARED Last leg consolidation of aircraft supplies Shared bus/lorry lanes
INFRASTRUCTURE Shared collection/delivery services between Control post strategy
off airport warehouses and airport
BEHAVIOURAL Out of hours network operations Customer education
CHANGE Driver training programme Fuel management programme
Reduction of hubbed freight from Heathrow Re-location of the existing cargo centre
REDESIGN OF
Rationalisation of forwarder warehouses Cargo centre Vehicle Booking System (VBS)
LOGISTICS SYSTEM
Cargo consolidation centre Cargo centre redesign
MODAL SHIFT Rail freight
Emission controls Delivery and Service Plans (DSPs)
POLICY, VOLUNTARY Service and delivery charge Freight Quality Partnership (FQP)
AND REGULATORY Freight Operator Recognition Scheme
Mobile refrigeration equipment
INTERVENTIONS (FORS)
Performance management Higher capacity vehicles
ALTERNATIVE
Use of electric powered vehicles Use of gas powered vehicles
FUELS
INTELLIGENT Freight Exchanges IT based security systems
TRANSPORT
SYSTEM (ITS) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Vehicle Booking System for cargo centre
SOLUTIONSAECOM 626 – WLA Heathrow Freight Movement Study – Executive Summary 8
Potential Impact Reduction Options (those in yellow indicated modelled options)
The interventions were tested to 2020 and compare the 2020 external costs without the
proposed intervention against each of the three Heathrow growth scenerios A, B and C. Each
intervention was tested against a low, medium and high take up or market penetration of the
option. The table below provides a summary of the modelling outputs tested against growth
scenario A (airport development within existing limits with ATMs capped at 480,000 per
annum). It shows the top six total external cost saving interventions that were modelled.
External cost savings against Scenarios B and C would be greater.
For the options modelled greatest external cost savings arise from:
ECM Total Total
Option Description
Scenario Saving £M Saving %
Improved back-loading Medium £32.6 13.0%
Reduction of hubbed freight Medium £20.4 8.1%
Use of higher capacity vehicles Medium £17.0 6.8%
Establishment and use of shared services for inter-
2 £11.1 4.4%
airport trunking operations
Mode shift to rail freight Medium £9.3 3.7%
Out of hours network operations, spread to inter-
Medium £6.6 2.6%
peak and night-time periods
Recommendations
Whilst it was not an objective of the Heathrow Freight Movement Study to produce an action
plan or programme of interventions designed to contain or reduce impacts, an increase in
freight and servicing vehicle activity to 2020 of between 30% and 40% does indicate that such a
strategy should be developed by key stakeholders. Recommendations are grouped into the
following categories:
• Business Led Opportunities
• Client Group Actions
• Further Studies and Activities
Business Led Opportunities – Industry Cost savings and a Business Led Forum.
Competition in the logistics sector and continuing fuel price rises will no doubt continue to drive
transport efficiencies and the sector will respond with innovative solutions that may reflect the
options and interventions offered by this study. Whilst the options modelling provides an
indication of the external costs saving attributed to each intervention, and these can be used as
business drivers particularly in respect of Corporate Social Responsibility, direct cost savings to
the organisation are a definite motivator for change.
Potential
ECM Fuel Cost
Option Description Saving to
Scenario
Industry
£MAECOM 626 – WLA Heathrow Freight Movement Study – Executive Summary 9
Improved back-loading Medium £413.2
Reduction of hubbed freight Medium £258.6
Use of higher capacity vehicles Medium £215.5
Establishment and use of shared services for inter-
2 £140.7
airport trunking operations
Mode shift to rail freight Medium £117.9
Out of hours network operations, spread to inter-
Medium £83.7
peak and night-time periods
Potential Annual Business Cost Savings Derived from the Options/Interventions
To facilitate collaborative ventures, develop better practices and deliver market led efficiency
improvements the development of a business led ‘Logistics Forum’ is proposed. This might
comprise of representatives from the following local businesses:
• Cargo agents
• Freight forwarders
• Airfreight hauliers
• Express, courier and mail
The forum would most likely ultimately need to be self-financing, compliment the work of the
West London FQP and operate to a strict remit. This remit could include an objective to
implement impact reduction measures as a mechanism to avoid the possible mandatory
imposition of controls, such as emissions standards, infrastructure charging and planning/land
use constraints.
Client Group Actions
It is clear that BAA has a pivotal role in implementing and influencing strategies and controls for
all types of surface access activity at the airport. It has driven initiatives such as the Retail
Consolidation Centre and its own Clean Vehicles Programme. Control Post strategy is
constantly under review and being developed. A profiling/priority system and scheduling
system (for example out of hours waste collections) and slot booking system should be
considered.
Whilst the overall impact reduction of the introduction of electric vehicles is limited, its
contribution to local air quality measures and the large number of local trips in small vehicles
mean that the provision of an adequate re-charging infrastructure should be achievable. The
Client Group should work collaboratively to help achieve the Mayor’s Electric Vehicle Delivery
Plan which seeks to introduce 100,000 electric vehicles to London.
Further Studies and Activities
The study scope has not extended to the investigation of delivery and service practices of other
comparable airports. Most do not operate within the infrastructure constraints at Heathrow but
lessons learned elsewhere and a benchmarking of performance, even at a high level (such as
trips per tonnes handled) could provide some useful indicators.
The modelling process has shown the theoretical potential for modal-shift of trucked airfreight to
rail for European traffic. The development of High Speed 1 and 2 and the recently re-emerged
proposal for the Slough International Rail Freight terminal, whilst not predicated on freight
tonnage inputs from Heathrow, do represent opportunities for the development of a domestic
and European network connecting key airports by a fast overnight service. BAA and other
stakeholders should ensure that they are fully engaged with the consultative process for the
development of domestic and European rail freight services.AECOM 626 – WLA Heathrow Freight Movement Study – Executive Summary 10
Finally, the complexities of operations at the Cargo Centre impact directly on the efficiency of
the businesses collecting and delivering cargo. Dwell times here are unacceptably long leading
to poor vehicle and driver productivity. A detailed investigation of the systems and process
used by the Cargo Agents is recommended to better understand the opportunities for
improvements.You can also read
