Traffic congestion at its worst during Christmas parcel deliveries

Heightened delivery pressures adding strain to our roads and environment could be helped by a simple solution.

It’s just a few days before Christmas. Shoppers have scrambled to order or post their Christmas gifts and supplies. Couriers are now jostling, darting, and zooming to get those packages delivered.

We’ve spared a thought to what this time of year means for parcel volumes. Australia Post has been reporting massive parcel delivery numbers in the lead up to Christmas. In one particular week, numbers reached 10 million parcels delivered.

Yet we also need to spare a thought to how these mad parcel volumes impact our already straining roads and cities.

Tips for avoiding traffic delays and alerts to road issues begin to increase like the number or package deliveries do. It’s a perfect moment to reflect on a daily problem. Earlier this year the Road Congestion in Australia report revealed our traffic congestion is rising. The report points to Melbourne as the worst affected city.

The heavy costs of road congestion

The Road Congestion in Australia report underlines how heavy congestion on our roads harms both the economy and the environment. It is costly and reduces productivity as workers spend hours stuck in traffic and supplies take much longer to reach businesses and residents. Vehicle emissions also decay our environment and adversely affect our health.

“The transport sector is the second largest contributor to greenhouse emissions in Victoria,” explains Groundfloor co-founder Chris van Raay. “While passenger cars are the biggest contributors, trucks and light commercial vehicles are next on the list.”

Mr van Raay says the Groundfloor team are doing their bit for reducing road congestion and lessening emissions with their innovation in parcel management for high-density buildings. He says the problem lies with the frequency of unsuccessful deliveries.

“A missed delivery means additional courier trips that could have been saved, reduced vehicle capacity for completing pickups, and re-delivery attempts contributing to road congestion and emissions. Public locker banks or post office visits actually contribute to the problem by making recipients get in their car to pick up their parcels.”   

“We’re attacking this problem in two ways: by ensuring a parcel is always delivered successfully the first time in your own apartment building or office, and reducing the amount of time a courier takes to make a delivery.”

Road congestion and our happiness

An infrastructure Australia report named Planning Liveable Cities shows road congestion also reduces our overall happiness since it takes us longer to get places and delays our receipt of goods and services. Those of you stuck in traffic trying to get to your holiday destination would instantly agree with that. Planning Liveable Cities explains “communities are increasingly disappointed by their experience of growth” because the infrastructure cannot keep up.

“Growth encourages us to adopt new processes, to stop and look at what we’re doing and ask, ‘is there a better way we can do this?’” Mr van Raay said.

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