Resource Recovery Forum

As a result of legislation and other factors, road transport costs are predicted to increase significantly in the future. This will have a direct impact on the costs of collecting and delivering waste materials for recycling. Furthermore, greater quantities of waste must be recycled in the future to meet various Government and EU targets, requiring increased levels of transport.

Ceres Logistics completed a study for the Resource Recovery Forum (RRF) in December 2003 to investigate ‘The Impact of Increasing Road Transport Costs on Waste Recovery and Recycling'. The aim of the study was to examine the overall implications of the resulting increases in transport costs on the sustainable recovery and recycling of waste material.

Factors affecting the costs of road transport include the Working Time Directive (WTD), Congestion Charging, the Driver Training Directive and driver shortages. Each factor will have a direct affect on costs for transport operators. Additionally, there are important interactions between different impacts that are likely to exacerbate the overall situation.

The project involved the following steps:

• An examination of the costs of road transport, identifying and assessing key factors affecting transport costs now and in the future;
• An investigation into the additional quantities of waste that will need to be recovered to meet future waste targets;
• Development of a transport model utilising transport cost data from national, industry and various company sources to assess increases in transport activity and costs in the future;
• An assessment of the environmental and social implications of meeting targets, detailing the externalities associated with road transport and estimates of the external impacts of meeting targets; and,
• An examination of modal alternatives and potential improvements in road transport costs and performance.

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