Increases to journey times will result in additional costs to the freight industry and be passed onto shoppers, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) says.
The statement follows FTA’s assessment of statistics published by the Department for Transport (DfT).
The data suggests that the average speed on ‘A’ road networks during the morning rush-hour has slowed to 23.6mph – a 0.5 per cent decrease.
Amid the slowdown, HGV traffic has increased by 1.2 per cent, the figures say. It equates to 16.1 billion vehicle miles and represents 5.1 per cent of total motor vehicle traffic.
Malcolm Bingham, FTA’s head of road network management, said: “The DfT statistics show that journey times have increased yet again, which is a worrying reflection of the lack of road capacity across the UK.
“Longer journeys mean additional costs to the freight and logistics industry, which are inevitably passed on to the shopper and the price of goods on shelves goes up as a result.”
He added: “With current motorway improvements still to be implemented, these figures show that our ‘A’ road network is also showing the strain and we need to have investment in that network as well.
“It is therefore vital that the Government and local highway authorities keep roads-spending as a priority and look to provide the capacity needed for an improving UK economy.”
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