It’s High Time for a Smoother Ride!

On 12th June, BBC News reported that: “Labour has pledged to fund councils to repair up to a million potholes a year in England.

“The party said it would give "multi-year funding settlements to local leaders" to fix broken roads…”

The report recorded the Conservative Party’s response as being: “The government has already promised to put ￡8.3bn into road repairs between this year and 2034, which was announced in the Tory manifesto on Tuesday.”

Compared to the cost of living or NHS waiting lists, repairing potholes may not be at the forefront of the public’s political priorities, but it is very important nonetheless. The incoming Labour government elected on July 4th will have to tackle the issue of the UK’s increasingly dilapidated roads from the positions of both road user safety and the transport infrastructure facilitating UK and international trade.

An earlier BBC report posted in March 2023 quoted AA president Edmund King as saying: "Our breakdown data shows that 2023 was the worst year for potholes for five years.

"Arguably the road network is a local council's biggest asset, but not enough planned investment and repairs are being made to make streets safer and smoother for drivers and those on two wheels."

The article also states that: “Depending on their size, potholes can cause significant damage to vehicles and pose a danger to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.

“Although small potholes rarely cause major accidents, if a vehicle hits a lot of them over time, it can lead to damage to the tyres, suspension and steering system.”

From the standpoint of a logistics company like Relay that works to tight schedules, the state of the UK roads has to be factored in to our planning, because damaged road surfaces can lead to delays in the movement of traffic. As we specialise in the collection and delivery of high value electronic equipment, the stringent protective measures we take to prevent damage to the loads we carry are also all the more vital.

A Pothole Epidemic

The RAC’s “Pothole Index,” recently posted and supported by comprehensive analysis and data is introduced with the words: “Britain’s ‘pothole plague’ took even more of a toll on drivers in 2023 as RAC patrols attended nearly 30,000 pothole-related breakdowns over the course of the year, up by 33% compared to?2022.”

And it seems that so far the situation is not improving: “The RAC attended 7,904?breakdowns in the first quarter of 2024 due to bad road surfaces, up 53% on the last three months of 2023, a clear sign that the UK is suffering a pothole epidemic as roads continue to crumble.

“Analysis shows it’s been far from a smooth start to the year for the nation’s drivers, with pothole-related breakdown numbers up by 10% in the last 12 months from 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024.”

Logistics UK, the UK’s award winning trade association for the transport and logistics sector, has called on in the short term the government in the short term for:

• Investment focused on tackling the UK’s top congestion hotspots, on roads, rail, ports and airports.?
• Better maintenance of existing strategic and local infrastructure to improve reliability and safety.?
• Industry-informed and evidence-based standards and regulations, to deliver a safe and efficient logistics system.

These are essential aims that Relay fully supports, and solving the “pothole epidemic” will be a part of the solution.