THE CITY OF EDINBURGH FREIGHT VILLAGE AND TRANSSHIPMENT CENTRE
... Overall, there are also 5 services per hour serve Kirkliston during the day. Services 63 and 457 can be accessed from the B800 and B9080 and 38 from B9080. Morreover, with the nearest construction of the tram and especially the lane 2, there is a project to connect Kirkliston to the tram terminus, Newbridge, with dedicated shuttle in knowing it should operate approximately every 15 minutes throughout the day and every 20 minutes in evening and on Sundays. However, in knowing the different possibilities to access to the site, we could improve it of several ways. As we have the train lane just near the location and create intermodal terminals, I think it will be possible to create a passenger station in the freight village for the employees which for the majority would lived in Edinburgh. Like this, from the Waverley station or Haymarket station essentially, the employees will come directly to the site. That’s why, I sent e-mail about this to the Scotrail and Traveline Scotland companies in order to know if it’s possible and the cost it involves, and they answered as it isn’t the reality, they don’t know, can’t really answered me at this stage. Moreover, concerning the bus, I thought too to have the possibility to create several bus lanes which leaves Edinburgh at several places to arrive directly to the site. That’s why, I sent also e-mails to Lothian buses and First companies in order to know if it would be possible and they can’t answer me. In the case it’s not possible to have directly lanes for buses, it will be possible to take a private bus company between Kirkliston and the site which serves every hours. Furthermore, to improve also the existing bus services serving Kirkliston, it will be better for the 63 to operate the evening and for the 457 to operate Sunday but for this two bus private companies, I didn’t receive answer about these two projects. Sandra Durand 3 Operational 3.1 Drawing + layout + Dimensions + Access In order to help to write this part of the project, I search essentially information on the freight village website. We have estimated that the space available on our chosen site was around 70 hectares, or 700,000 square meters because of three reasons: the South-East part of the site is reduced by the border of Kirkliston and the presence of a farm house, the Amondhill Cottages. There is also the Craig House Farm House at the North-East of the site. We have agreed that the safest entry for the site would be to build a road from the roundabout linking the A8 and the M9 because for us, it’s the best entry in function of the road network facilities: it’s seems to be the best and easier access to entry and leave the freight village in order to win time to access at the main several road network, the airport and the port with the trucks owing to the roundabout too, so easier to decelerate and accelerate the high speed. It’s also the same case for the visitors and for the employees which essentially came from the A8 or M9. Moreover, it would be only a short part of road to build which should not be too expansive. We have decided to build 4 warehouses of 50,000 square meters each. One could be used for the cold storage. Another could be used for the storage of dangerous goods, depending on the demand of the clients. Each warehouse will be equipped of docks to load and unload the trucks. There will essentially have general warehouses for storage, for logistics activities, warehouses with rail-road interchange, and warehouses with raised docking bays. Each warehouse will have also the air conditioning. There must be at least 35 meter between the warehouses to allow the trucks to circulate, to park at the docks and to manoeuvre. The multimodal terminal will also be around 50,000 sqm, allowing an exterior storage of the containers. This will be used to link road and rail traffic, and maybe in the future this will also be linked with the sea. Each warehouses and multimodal terminal will be equipped with some material facilities as lift trucks, fork lifts, cranes, elevator truck, manual and electric trucks and others handling facilities. We have estimated that we could accept around 100 logistics and transport companies working on the site and we will build their offices near the entry, in a building of 13,000 sqm, in which we could also welcome an insurance company we could propose to our clients. 7,000 other sqm of offices will be located in the four warehouses and in the multimodal terminal for the managers and the employees of the freight village. We will be equipped of a custom office, to clear the goods arriving from the foreign countries. This area will be around 10,000 sqm. There will be a building on the site dedicated to different services for the employees as a restaurant, a coffee shop, a supermarket shop, a post office, a bank office, public telephone, an insurance company… This area will be around 20,000 sqm. There will also be a service-station to allow the trucks to have fuel while they leave the site. Our freight village will also be equipped of a fire brigade and a health centre, of 1,000 sqm each, for the first interventions on the site. There are three parkings: one for the cars: it will be shared between the staff cars and the second part of the parking is for the visitors and customers. This parking will be around 60,000 sqm. two for the trucks near the warehouses. Each truck parking will be around 35,000 sqm. Just near the car parking, there is the bicycle garage for the staff which will be around 5,000 sqm There is also air freight aids (storage, palletisation, depalletisation, transfer under customs…). To allow the trucks to cross the rail line safely, we will use two little bridges which already existing on our site. We will develop some safe way for the pedestrians and bicycles to circulate on the site and access to all the buildings. The road for the trucks on the site will be some one-way roads, to make the traffic easier. There will be a hedge around the site and some cameras to secure the site. There will also be some guardians at the entry of the site to control anyone who wants to come in. There is also in order to prevent fire, several fire protections as sprinklers, smoke clearing, RIA and intrusion detection. The general checking of site contains also maintenance of the buildings, roadway systems, parks and street lighting, external cleaning of the site, and the accesses of the buildings, the bins picking, maintenance service of buildings allowing to intervene quickly on request of the installed companies. At totally, our buildings and parkings have a surface of 438 000 sqm. And we would like to let for the green spaces, roads, lanes for the bicycles, two bus stops and the pavement 60 000 sqm. Near the rail lane we let a little space if the project of extension of the M9 will be done. So, at totally, our surface will be 500000 sqm. We have around 200 000 sqm left free we could use for a future expansion if needed. 3.2. Operating costs and likely demand should be assessed, as should any staff requirements. Operating costs This part of this project is really difficult because we need specific information that we don’t really where to find or the way to find them. That’s why, I sent several mails to the city council of Edinburgh in order to know also if this project could involves subsidiary of it, to the European platform address and to the society of Sogaris, a French logistic platform. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive answers or solutions in order to estimate it. The demand requires also to evaluate the demand that the freight village can have before to construct it and in a second part when it’s construct. I have just found global information about the sea, plane and road traffic in Edinburgh. About the air freight traffic, the only data I have concerning Edinburgh is 24,761 tonnes in 2003. For the sea freight traffic, there was 42 million tonnes in 2002 and for the road freight traffic, 2,929 million of tonnes in 2003. As I explain you briefly before, I didn’t find real answer in order to help me. So, I decided to use the website www.freightvillage.com as an help. In this site there are a lot of logistic platforms and European freight villages. So, I decided in function of two parameters, the surface and the importance of freight traffic for each means of transport, to determine on this way, the demand for our freight village. For that, I created a table (see annexe). But this demand is a global demand that is to say; I don’t separate the demand before the creation of the demand after the creation. It’s so complicate and imprecisely. Moreover, when we speak about the demand, it can be defines as the number of tonnes for each means of transport. Surely, you can also sometimes define the demand as the number of transport and logistics firms but in our case, not. It’s logical to use the tonnage. As you can see on the site, it’s relatively rare to obtain these datas. According to the surface we have chosen, 50 hectares, we can know calculate the global demand. In this table, I used only two freight villages, the number 1, the French company Sogaris and the number 13, a German company in function of their surface. Then, as you can also see the different elements in my table, I would like to cut the demand in five different parts: The demand for the intermodal rail road freight The demand for the rail freight The demand for the road freight The demand for the air freight The demand for the sea freight So, I decided to have in average a demand equivalent to 7,5 million of tonnes. This number isn’t really false because if you observe the three freight villages, you can see that in average, you have some means of transport where the demand is more important as the road traffic. In our case, I must take in account the second parameters and my will of develop rail freight, road rail freight, so I must to make forecasts. Therefore, we will have approximately 2.800.000 tonnes of road traffic, 2.000.000 tonnes for the plane, 600.000 tonnes for the rail, 300.000 tonnes for the sea and finally 1.100.000 tonnes for the intermodal freight traffic. And finally, I think we can welcome around 100 or more companies always according the data in my table. 3.3 Likely demand After analysing and forecasting the demand, the other important point is the operational costs of the freight village. For this point also, it’s difficult to obtain information. This part of the project includes two main points: on the first hand, the operating costs about the freight village, that is to say, the costs of the buildings, warehouses etc and on the other hand, the costs about the staffs. In order to do this, you normally must to create an audit. It’s really an advantage to have subsidy of the government or the city council if you want to create a freight village but in Edinburgh, a member of the transport city council answered it wasn’t in their project to do this “the Council would be unlikely to subsidise such a development“ although a freight village need a lot of investments that they must to have and generate a good increase for the economic situation of the city, perform it. Generally, for this surface it’s between 1 million and 10 million of euros (see the table above). So,In order to estimate the operating costs, I sent again e-mails to members of the www.freightvillage.com, essentially the Sogaris firm and to the Interporto Bologna and received no answer. So, I decided to search information on Internet. For the first point, the operating costs about the construction, I find this website www.warehousematch.com which help you to calculate the costs of your warehouse. But the result was really false because one warehouse costs so much, £1 million ! This number includes datas as, the number of employees in this office, the number of hectares for this warehouse and the price for each hectare in this area which is for Edinburgh £3.2 million the number of free spaces… So, I decided to not take in account this method, figures and price. Moreover, for the staff costs, I found information on the french website www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/chifcle_fiche.asp?ref_id=NATFPS04101&tab_id=38. As you will see later, I decided to divide the staff costs in four categories: The boss: the salary will be between £22 714 and £29 574 per year The managers: the salary will be between £13 205 and £15 095 per year The employees like secretaries for example: the salary will be between £9 698 and £10 410 per year The workers like warehousemen: the salary will be between £8 735 and £10 568 per year So we have an operating cost about its staff which will be equivalent in maximum to: £29,574 + £75,475 + £8,265,540 + £12,681,600 = £ 21,052,189 per year 3.4 Staff requirements According to my analyses on the same table, in order to calculate the number of staffs required, I will use again the same companies. As you can compare, the both companies have a big difference of staff members. For me and according to the others in my table, I think I will evaluate the staffs in function of the SOGARIS Company. So, my surface is 50 hectares, so I for the beginning want to have 2000 workers that I will share between the several trades: Customs officers Security guards Staff in order to clean parking and green spaces Staff for the coffee shop, restaurant, supermarket shop, bank, service station, fire brigade and health centre like sales managers and assistants, chairwomen, waiters and waitresses, cookers, washing up staff, banker, insurance agents, receptionists, firemen, doctors, nurses Logistic department like warehousemen, drivers, order workers, manager, assistants Marketing department like manager, assistants Finance department like manager, assistants Administration department like secretaries Directory department like the boss It’s possible that some month after opening the freight village, we incrase the staff capacity but for the beginning, it’s enough. These different trades are later, divided in four categories in function of the socio-professional categories: the boss: it concerns one person The managers: it concerns five persons The employees: it concerns 794 persons The workers: it concerns 1200 persons This ratio has been calculated owing to the examples on the website www.freightvillage.com 3.5 Operating practices and hours In order to be competitive and to be alive and according to the freight village website, the freight village must work seven days per week, 24/24 hours. But, it doesn’t concern each trade of staff. I decided to operate for the security guards, customs officers, doctors, nurses, sales assistants, receptionists, warehousemen, and drivers and finally firemen to work in 3/8, and for the others, the hours are 8-12 Am and 13-18 Pm Monday to Friday. Laurent Payre 4. Environment 4.1. Assessment of magnitude of significant environmental impacts Since the world has recognized the environmental problems and the impacts on the nature due to the transport sector, the policy changed to a friendly environmental way, the government in partnership with the Europe try to improve the way of life of the human being. They recognize that the transport has a huge impact on the environment: 30% of the pollution is caused by the transport and 59% only from freight transport since 1990 (“Officials try to hide rise in transport pollution”, Paul Brown May 27, 2004,The Guardian).That is why a freight village has been thought in order to reduce the pollution and move some freight on the road to another more environmentally modes: rail, sea or air. Repartition of transport by modes (in billions T/km) (Source:http://dataservice.eea.eu.int/dataservice/) In the freight transport sector the road and the short sea shipping are dominating in billions tonnes/kilometres since 1990 despite the road has always been the most polluting sector in term of air and noise pollution. The road is one of the most competitive modes in term of speed, cost, flexibility and accuracy in the freight transport. Operational and environmental are two opposites term in the transport industry, the road is the most effective in operational view but it is the worst in environmental view. The use of the sea is something really environmental if it did not sink in the ocean because when it happens it is the worst polluting thing. Then the use of the rail will be preferred instead road or ship, in a modal shift system the government try to improve the transport and move the freight from the road to the rail. (Source: National Environmental Technology Centre) The transport sector accounts for about 23% of total carbon dioxide emissions and within this, road traffic is one of the fastest growing sources. Transport also produces other greenhouse gases, including nitrous oxide and methane. (Department For Transport 2004) In the 2004 White Paper The Future of Transport, the Department for Transport assumed joint responsibility for a Public Service Agreement (PSA) target on greenhouse gas emissions The target requires a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 12.5 per cent and a move towards a 20 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010. Pollution by modes(in euro/1 000 tonnes-km) (Source:http://dataservice.eea.eu.int/dataservice/) Moreover the government do not have so much power and influence on private companies, the only means to protect the environment are the policies and the rules the government can implemented, but a lot of companies do not care about the environment and sometimes prefer to pay taxes and fines than improve their methods in order to get a sustainable transport. It is true that establish a freight village in Edinburgh can be dangerous for the environment and the human health: this platform can done climate change, noise, air, visual pollution and maybe water or land pollution…Despite of its pollutions it will be less than the actual pollution, the freight village will be a multi-modal platform in order to be more environmental, this will reduce the pollution in a huge area. In 2002, 89% of surface based freight in the UK was moved by road and only 11% by rail. The government policies are to avoid the use of the road, to move the freight on the rails, to limits the trucks in the city centre, to promote the use of the public transport, in fact to get a sustainable and environmental transport. The use of a combined transport rail-ship, rail-air or even rail-road will limit the pollution, especially in urban area: trucks have now other choices than cross cities on the road, they can cross on the rails. These objectives reach the government aim That is why implement a freight village has a positive impact on the nature and the human health, it will provide a means to avoid the city centre by truck and promote the combined and multimodal transport. Transport affects the environment in a number of ways: Energy Consumption and Climate Change: In the UK, transport accounts for about 30% of all energy consumed, and is the sector with the fastest growth in energy consumption. At present, almost all the energy used by transport comes from fossil fuel. This has a direct impact on climate change. The Government recognises improvements have been made in fuel economy and emissions performance, the forecast growth in road traffic, if left unchecked, would threaten the achievement of its environmental objectives. Significant impacts are seen as arising from air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and noise pollution. The report ‘Climate Change: the UK Programme’ (DEFRA 2000) explains that the transport system is the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. More importantly, it is the fastest growing source. Left unchecked, van and lorry traffic is forecast to grow by around 22% over the next 20 years. (Source: Department of Trade and Industry) The road and the aviation are the worst polluting modes of the freight sector, especially the air which directly damages the environment. Transport is the biggest single source of most urban air pollution. They can damage plant and animal life as well as human health, even at considerable distances from their point of origin. That is why a freight village can be dangerous for the environment through indirect impacts. The air pollution also contribute to the formation of ozone, which is a harmful secondary pollutant and an important greenhouse gas contributing to global warming, and contribute to acid rain. Particulate air pollution episodes are responsible for causing premature deaths among those with pre-existing lung and heart diseases. Transport Infrastructure: The land is changing to the transport use. Between 1991 and 2000 around 16,600 hectares of land in England changed to Highways and other road transport. Over the same period, 6,000 hectares previously used for Highways and other road transport changed to other land uses. The net increase of 10,600 hectares over this period is roughly equivalent in size to the urban area of the City of Leicester. Over the same period there was also a change in the amount of land used for other transport, such as railway lines and airports. Transport infrastructure uses energy and materials during construction, e.g. gravel, crushed rock, and steel. The vast majority of materials used are new, rather than recycled. Roads, including parking, have been estimated to occupy 19% of the total surface area of cities. Transport infrastructure also affects habitats. Noise and air pollution: This kind of pollution is the most damaging for the human health; the road traffic affects people by 30% and the aircraft and trains are in third and fourth position with 17% and 5%. (Source: Building Research Establishment) Noise has a nuisance impact which can be serious, but there is increasing evidence that it also affects health, especially mental health. Vibration, which is closely related, can impact on the built environment, and damage buildings and people. In many areas, noise is one of the most obvious impacts of d...