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Post by snowman on Nov 13, 2017 9:38:33 GMT
Few news stories around today, that GoAhead are considering using part of their bus garages as Amazon distribution sites, and allowing the parcels to travel on the buses, idea is it will cut number of delivery vans The Times Link London Standard Link Link 3
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Post by sid on Nov 13, 2017 10:10:11 GMT
Few news stories around today, that GoAhead are considering using part of their bus garages as Amazon distribution sites, and allowing the parcels to travel on the buses, idea is it will cut number of delivery vans The Times Link London Standard Link Link 3 Parcels by bus? I'm not sure how that would work in practice? Surely TfL would have the final say on the matter?
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Post by M1104 on Nov 13, 2017 10:23:59 GMT
Few news stories around today, that GoAhead are considering using part of their bus garages as Amazon distribution sites, and allowing the parcels to travel on the buses, idea is it will cut number of delivery vans The Times Link London Standard Link Link 3 Parcels by bus? I'm not sure how that would work in practice? Surely TfL would have the final say on the matter? There's also the practical scenarios of the bus breaking down, diverted, curtailed, held back due to an incident, etc
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Post by SILENCED on Nov 13, 2017 10:47:58 GMT
Few news stories around today, that GoAhead are considering using part of their bus garages as Amazon distribution sites, and allowing the parcels to travel on the buses, idea is it will cut number of delivery vans The Times Link London Standard Link Link 3 Parcels by bus? I'm not sure how that would work in practice? Surely TfL would have the final say on the matter? Don't see how Tfl can dictate what Go-Ahead can or can't do with their privately owned assets ... but bus garages are empty most of the day ... an asset doing very little ... why not look into ways of the garage generating income during this time.
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Post by RandomBusesGirl on Nov 13, 2017 10:53:02 GMT
I love how this is seen as potentially viable due to the vast amount of routes GAL actually operate
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Post by sid on Nov 13, 2017 10:54:37 GMT
Parcels by bus? I'm not sure how that would work in practice? Surely TfL would have the final say on the matter? Don't see how Tfl can dictate what Go-Ahead can or can't do with their privately owned assets ... but bus garages are empty most of the day ... an asset doing very little ... why not look into ways of the garage generating income during this time. Garages no, I was referring to the idea of parcels by bus, sounds like a recipe for absolute mayhem to me! Even at some garages there might be H&S issues although people did purchase bus passes from garages many years ago
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Post by sid on Nov 13, 2017 11:03:16 GMT
Parcels by bus? I'm not sure how that would work in practice? Surely TfL would have the final say on the matter? There's also the practical scenarios of the bus breaking down, diverted, curtailed, held back due to an incident, etc Indeed or the bus is chocca block full, sounds like somebody has had a 'good idea' without any thought for the practicalities. It might work in the outer Hebrides though!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2017 11:07:07 GMT
I love how this is seen as potentially viable due to the vast amount of routes GAL actually operate Indeed, the fact they run to all parts of London also helps make this a viable proposition. Could make them a fortune.
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Post by John tuthill on Nov 13, 2017 11:16:51 GMT
There's also the practical scenarios of the bus breaking down, diverted, curtailed, held back due to an incident, etc Indeed or the bus is chocca block full, sounds like somebody has had a 'good idea' without any thought for the practicalities. It might work in the outer Hebrides though! They could use this, speed of London traffic it would work! Not my photo Attachment Deleted
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Post by SILENCED on Nov 13, 2017 11:23:56 GMT
Don't see how Tfl can dictate what Go-Ahead can or can't do with their privately owned assets ... but bus garages are empty most of the day ... an asset doing very little ... why not look into ways of the garage generating income during this time. Garages no, I was referring to the idea of parcels by bus, sounds like a recipe for absolute mayhem to me! Even at some garages there might be H&S issues although people did purchase bus passes from garages many years ago Have you actually read the articles or just the headline ... if you actually read the articles you will find most of what has been posted in this thread is complete nonsense
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Post by vjaska on Nov 13, 2017 11:54:04 GMT
There's also the practical scenarios of the bus breaking down, diverted, curtailed, held back due to an incident, etc Indeed or the bus is chocca block full, sounds like somebody has had a 'good idea' without any thought for the practicalities. It might work in the outer Hebrides though! In The Evening Standard and the third link, it says empty buses will be used so the issue of using an in service bus isn’t relevant.
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Post by sid on Nov 13, 2017 11:55:31 GMT
Garages no, I was referring to the idea of parcels by bus, sounds like a recipe for absolute mayhem to me! Even at some garages there might be H&S issues although people did purchase bus passes from garages many years ago Have you actually read the articles or just the headline ... if you actually read the articles you will find most of what has been posted in this thread is complete nonsense I'd only read the ES link, the Times one refers to EMPTY buses which makes a little bit more sense. Trainers could have parcel lockers fitted and driven to specific locations for people to collect their goods. I'm still dubious about but we shall see.
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Post by snoggle on Nov 13, 2017 11:58:58 GMT
Few news stories around today, that GoAhead are considering using part of their bus garages as Amazon distribution sites, and allowing the parcels to travel on the buses, idea is it will cut number of delivery vans The Times Link London Standard Link Link 3 So using space in depots to create an intermediate stageing post and then using empty buses to deliver the parcels. Can't wait for a GAL NB4L to trundle down my side road to deliver some books. I can see how GAL have got to the concept but I can see a fair number of practical issues around how this might work. There must be issues about possible use of double deckers in many residential areas. There are all sorts of restrictions and taking buses away from known bus routes must pose risks. Given some areas are notoriously "anti-bus" how will they react to buses turning up on their residential roads? If GAL were only to use small single deckers then we're not really any further forward from Mercedes and Transit vans whizzing around. There must also be issues about ensuring the security of parcels within bus garages and also on the vehicles while being delivered. It's extremely easy to get inside service buses - they can't be locked in the same way that vans can be. It will be interesting to see if GAL can actually make this work. The last whizzy idea about parcel collections at tube stations and tube car parks seems to have died the death - presumably because people want to receive parcels at their homes rather than in a locker in a car park.
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Post by redexpress on Nov 13, 2017 12:29:44 GMT
The use of garage space makes sense - lots of space in prime locations underutilised during the day. But the use of buses makes less sense to me. On a weekday there aren't huge numbers of buses sitting in garages throughout the day - yes off-peak vehicle requirements are slightly lower, but the downtime between peaks is often used for maintenance anyway.
I can see why there's a desire to cut down on the number of van trips, but there's a reason the delivery companies use small-medium vans - that's the vehicle size that gives them the most efficient delivery routes. If it was more efficient for them to use larger vehicles, they'd be using small lorries instead. Yes you can fit more parcels on a bus, but if you want 1 bus to replace 2 Transits, the bus needs to do twice the number of drops as the Transit in one day. I can't see how that will work out efficiently, and that's on top of the issues of access to residential streets already mentioned.
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Post by sid on Nov 13, 2017 12:49:50 GMT
The use of garage space makes sense - lots of space in prime locations underutilised during the day. But the use of buses makes less sense to me. On a weekday there aren't huge numbers of buses sitting in garages throughout the day - yes off-peak vehicle requirements are slightly lower, but the downtime between peaks is often used for maintenance anyway. I can see why there's a desire to cut down on the number of van trips, but there's a reason the delivery companies use small-medium vans - that's the vehicle size that gives them the most efficient delivery routes. If it was more efficient for them to use larger vehicles, they'd be using small lorries instead. Yes you can fit more parcels on a bus, but if you want 1 bus to replace 2 Transits, the bus needs to do twice the number of drops as the Transit in one day. I can't see how that will work out efficiently, and that's on top of the issues of access to residential streets already mentioned.
It has to also be considered that a lot of people will be arriving by car to collect their goods so there will have to be some parking available, during the daytime part of a garage could be cordoned off for this purpose? Obviously that wouldn't be possible at some garages.
Presumably it would be special buses such as dual purpose training vehicles rather than service buses bearing in mind lockers would have to be fitted, obviously there are security implications with one small package containing a top of the range phone being worth a few hundred pounds. I can only assume that the bus would follow a designated routes stopping at specific locations, maybe leisure centre or supermarket car parks where people come to collect their goods? But then why not install the lockers in the leisure centre or supermarket so people can collect them anytime? Any on street locations in residential areas would surely be objected to?
The more I think about this the more potential problems spring to mind !
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