Priority for Olympic traffic to cause distribution headache for retailers

Some key roads will have dedicated lanes for Olympic traffic. Deliveries will not be possible on parts of this network, which covers nine postal code areas, between 6am and midnight.

Richard Warren, programme manager at Tesco.com, warned that grocery deliveries will be restricted in some areas as well. “Some delivery slots may be restricted and we are waiting for information on what time of day those will be,” he said, adding that there will be messages on the website warning services will be impacted in some areas.

Transport for London (TfL) said it understands retailers’ concerns about when they are going to receive transport information on the Olympics, but that  much of the information retailers need to prepare for the event is already available online.

The organisation said at a British Retail Consortium event on Wednesday that it is launching a website later this month with everything it has available on it, after the BRC said earlier this week that the flow of information needs to speed up.

Ben Plowden, director of better routes and places at TfL Surface, said: “We know retailers have concerns about when they are going to know information and the concerns are completely understood.”

The BRC said this week retailers need information by October so they can plan how their services will be affected.