Deliveries and shipping
For many business that use transport for meetings, commuting and non-essential travels taking steps to reduce transport use can be comparatively simple. However, for businesses that rely on transport systems to deliver goods (either as manufacturers, or as resellers, reducing this impact can be much more difficult.
Rail freight
Using rail to transport goods in place of road or air transport is less environmentally damaging. However, the process can be difficult and is often only suitable for raw materials or very bulky goods. For many businesses accessing rail freight services may be easier through a 'freight forwarder' - a broker who can organise all aspects of freight on behalf of a client. Business Link has a useful Guide to Using Brokers and Forwarders.
For businesses which are able to switch large amounts of freight to rail the Rail Freight Group provides useful information and support to identify suitable options.
The Department for Transport (DfT) also provides some grants to help businesses switch to rail freight. These are accessible by all companies, but are judged on the environmental and financial savings they can achieve, so are likely to be more suitable for larger companies. For more information visit DfT's Rail Grants pages.
The difficulty of organising rail freight, and the preference for road transport has in part led to the creation of Freight on Rail a partnership of the rail freight operators, Rail Freight Group, Network Rail, the transport trade unions and Campaign for Better Transport working to promote the shift to rail freight.
Courier services
In place of operating delivery fleets use of freight and courier services could reduce a company's environmental impact. Most freight services are more than happy to take on regular contracts for delivery services and will be happy to discuss the service you require. For information on freight and courier services locally a search engine search of "freight services in ..." will usually provide a number of suitable services. If you provide courier and freight services in the Oxfordshire area please contact us to be added to this page.
A new service has been set up to maximise use of vehicles and use 'empty space' on delivery vehicles. Shiply provides an 'online transport marketplace'. The service allows businesses and individuals to list goods they need to transport and then receive quotes for delivery from over 6,000 transport providers already making similar journeys. The service is free to use for companies shipping goods.
