Try delivering all freight to the major stores - Coles, Woolies, Myers - then include the bulk pallets of things we deliver to the hundreds of businesses in the CBD.

"You can't do it in the fleet trucks. If you did, you would need to at least triple the amount of trucks that go in there."

Smaller trucks can only be a better solution to larger one's, I think.

Thats just the point I was making STG. See, on one side, the population is rising and on the other, easier solutions excludes the need for workers. You cant have your cake and eat it. So technologies, robotic labour, shows the way for a smaller population, not a large one. We may have to re-think the whole plan.

Since mankind has found the new play thing called "technologies" less and less we need the use for human-labour, and yet Australia still at the easy way is the best way.......I dont think so. Population and Technologies will need to balance in order for the two to integrate successfully for the needs of the future.

I would prefer the triple amount needed, that way jobs and lives can continue on there merry way. Make it all automatic just to save a buck, and the great Australian dream just fades away.

Again....Smaller and smarter is the ticket.

Trucks will always be needed, well into the 2070's and perhaps beyond.
The only way to remove them, is with anti-gravity technologies.....but I think that will be some time away:)

Make more work, not less......I know it sounds like going back in time, but what other choice do we have.

LEAP

During the very tragic Canberra bush fires, a crew sat in my home packed and ready to go to help.
I had a few radios for them.
One said we should dig a trench around Canberra and fill it with water.
Yep great idea,it would cost about 60 billion take twenty years and have a nice pile of ashes in the middle,to remind us why we did it.
Take the trucks out of the city.
Lets not wait for levitation, get superman in now.
Hang on, oh yes truck and trailers, B double, weighs 20 tonnes, load about double?
Let get the Utes in about 300 say, thousand that is.
Cole's and Woolworth's need many trucks every night.
Milk takes a night time fleet.
We can dig under ground tunnels.
I about 50 years under construction at about 5 times this country's gross annual income.
Or maybe just build all new roads one lane wider for trucks only.
Look its a silly idea but why not ban cars, make public transport work?
Not so silly.

The central BUSINESS district is just that. It has a large concentration of people that require transport and supplies that need trucks. If anything, small cars should be restricted.

Heavy trucks are not the problem, it's the timing that is the problem. Better use of trucks is perhaps the answer.

But, like anything, an increase in costs means the consumer pays more or the business goes broke.

Who's going to accept freight from each privately owned shop/business after hours?

"Uh, we'll be there sometime between 6pm and Midnight..."

For what we do, each drop can have a series of issues and some stuff takes priority over other stuff. So each business has to pay someone to sit and wait. Much of what we take goes straight into the back room of the business. It's interesting that many believe there's some sort 'underground' vastness of organization and warehousing in the city. There isn't, there are cupboards and under staff's work areas. There is no storage and there is no design for convenience of moving freight. Space in the city is used for making money, not sitting stagnant wasting space.

Why does there need to be private vehicles in the city? You can get access to any area within 500 meters from the outside streets.

I fully understand and agree with your views STG, Dad for many years was an owner truck driver on the road virtually seven days a week in the 70's-90's. If Dad these days was required to drive amidst 'every person on the roads interstate and in cities today' I reckon he'd go bananas!!

I drove into Melbourne a couple of years ago for the first time in years (outer actually) and drivers of vehicles were behaved shockingly from the moment I entered a left hand lane staying out of their way so they could overtake, to the moment of my destination. EVERY second vehicle tailgated me (interstate plates probably did not assist), truck drivers left me alone for the most part and not having passengers in the back seat was unconcerned. I felt like holding up a video camera or mobile camera (joshing guys) taping the mexican tailgaters and weavers. Apols for the labelling to the 'lawful, non-tailgating, bullying Victorians residing in the outer suburbs LOL!

Give me travelling to country Victoria, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra or Perth anyday - yet Melbourne outer suburbs - I wont bother driving in again!