Sure. Poor old freight is often the forgotten cousin as far as transport is concerned.
The CCP mentions consolidation centres a lot, sometimes on their own and sometimes in conjunction with low-emission zones. However, the fact is that although transport policy and other such documents have been talking about consolidation centres for the past 10 years, we still do not have one in Scotland.
To say that private sector operators and users are reluctant to use consolidation centres is a massive understatement. Basically, they have no interest in them at all. They potentially add costs because of extra handling and so on, and they potentially add time. They add complications because of the need for extra storage, the fact that an extra link is being put in the chain and so on. They create a lot of difficulty, hassle and cost that people do not want. There has been a lot of talk about how to make them more feasible, cheaper, more attractive and so on, and although people have done a lot of work on the matter, we still have not got there.
Tactran has done a lot of work on consolidation centres. It even got quite close—it was going to get a centre up and running, but it did not happen. It might still get one off the ground in Perth. The fact is that it takes a lot of work from the public sector to put this kind of model together.
We are working on the issue at Napier University. We have recruited a PhD student to look not only at comparisons with other countries that have been a bit more successful in this respect but more specifically at the conjunction of the consolidation centre policy with other supportive policies. Some of the things that are mentioned in the document are good, especially the references to low-emission zones, time windows and pedestrianisation. The question is this: if the consolidation centre does not work now, will it work if you have the right policy in place? It will be another year or so before we get any results, but I think that that is the way you have to go. You definitely need a supportive policy.
It is also important to think about different kinds of consolidation centres. For example, there might be a large one near the bypass on the edge of town, a smaller one in town at Cameron Toll or Fountainbridge and another even smaller one—people sometimes call them micro consolidation centres—on Rose Street, from which people would make deliveries on trolleys or bikes. The different hubs all have their own strengths, weakness, traffic profiles and so on. We have not really cracked that nut yet. Even in countries that might have more progressive transport policies, there are only a few such centres and they still find it to be a difficult nut to crack.
We are also looking at pedestrianisation. You might not think of that as a freight policy, but pedestrianising a city centre obviously makes it difficult to deliver goods to shops, hotels and so on, but such a move can become a supportive freight transport policy that can work with a consolidation centre. I think that that sort of complementary approach is the right way to go, but there is still a lot of work to be done.