How Logistics Companies Can Stay on Track Despite the M25 Closure
The recent shutdown of the M25 motorway, a major road around London and one of the busiest in the United Kingdom, has prompted concerns for thousands of delivery drivers and logistics businesses throughout the country. Fears have grown that gridlocked traffic on the south-west of the orbital route could critically impact business.
However, with reports stating the next full closure of a section of the M25 in Surrey will not be taking place until 9pm on May 10 until 6am on May 13 between Junction nine, at Leatherhead, and Junction 10, logistics companies have time to prepare and ensure they aren’t caught out with the next set of closures.
Why the M25 Motorway Is Closing
Last month’s closure marked a historic event, necessitated by the demolition of the Clearmount Bridge and the subsequent installation of a new gantry. Notably, this closure represented the first instance of a complete shutdown of all lanes on the M25 since its inauguration in 1986. These critical infrastructural developments are integral components of National Highways’ ambitious £317 million project.
National Highways emphasizes that this strategic decision is poised to yield significant enhancements. Among these improvements are the expansion of lane capacity, the implementation of safer entry points for Wisley, Pyrford, Old Byfleet, and RHS Wisley, and a notable reduction in pollution stemming from traffic congestion.
How Trimble Can Help You Avoid Delays
No one likes getting stuck in traffic, especially when there are delivery deadlines involved. Luckily, there are a few ways businesses can effectively avoid these closures delaying their operations, including the implementation of strategies that minimize stops and effectively monitor out-of-route events.
Trimble solutions, such as CoPilot, our commercial navigation application, and Appian, our route planning and optimization software, can help your business generate routes and navigate around the closures by taking into account factors like vehicle specifications, delivery requirements, detour distance and most importantly, in this case, traffic conditions. By incorporating this technology, your drivers will receive precise routes from the outset and can minimize unnecessary detours, ultimately saving your business time and fuel.
Together, these solutions first prioritize reliability by ensuring that every calculated route is optimized according to the specified vehicle type, guaranteeing legal compliance, driver safety, and efficiency. And second, we deliver consistency and precision. This means considering factors such as historical traffic data, real-time traffic conditions, hours of service regulations, driver break times and stop dwell times to calculate accurate estimated times of arrival (ETAs) tailored to each vehicle type.
However, despite thorough planning, it’s likely that unforeseen circumstances will arise on the surrounding roads due to the M25 closure. To further mitigate these challenges, we also recommend investing in real-time tracking and monitoring systems, such as integrating with our Trip Management software, that will provide you invaluable visibility into the location and status of each vehicle. This enables proactive intervention in the event of deviations or unplanned stops, with alerts generated based on predefined thresholds.
These alerts, delivered through visual or auditory means to drivers or notifications to fleet managers, allow you to take immediate action to rectify any out-of-route events. By combining accurate route planning with real-time tracking, fleet managers can swiftly respond to deviations, optimize resource utilization and enhance their operational efficiency.
How We'll Navigate this Situation Together
As part of National Highways' warning, three more weekend closures of the M25 in Surrey are planned before the end of the year, the second planned closure of the London Orbital since it opened in 1986. Although no dates have been set for these, the roads agency said there will not be one in June. Following the May work completion, National Highways will be able to announce the dates for the three remaining closures between July and December.
To stay competitive, businesses need to adopt smart mapping solutions that help combat diversions and optimize routes. At Trimble, we pride ourselves on offering smart commercial mapping technology which caters to logistics businesses routing, scheduling, mapping and navigation needs.
We understand the dynamic nature of vehicle operations. This is why our solutions allow dispatchers and load recipients to keep up to date with the ever-changing road conditions, delays, or early arrivals, empowering efficient fleet management and ensuring smooth operations.
Check out our support center article on how our solutions help navigate these challenges. Or, contact our team to see how we can help save your business time and reduce costs.