[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":110},["ShallowReactive",2],{"article-en-15-reasons-you-should-use-a-construction-consolidation-centre":3},{"article":4,"alternates":108},{"id":5,"title":6,"content":7,"slug":8,"author":9,"description":36,"locale":37,"published_at":38,"created_at":39,"updated_at":40,"sources":28,"goal":28,"whatis":28,"image":41,"categories":80,"audiences":95,"localizations":107},6,"15 Reasons You Should Use a CCC on Your Next Project","When people talk about the construction industry of the future, they conjure a world of AI-powered drones laser-guiding materials into place before taking on the telehandler at 3D chess.\n\nSo the idea of using a distribution centre to store materials en-route to site might seem a little underwhelming.\n\nYet it’s an idea that’s developing momentum – and one that won’t have you worrying whether your wheeled excavator plans to enslave you in your sleep.\n\n#### What is a construction consolidation centre?\n> Construction consolidation centres (CCCs) are strategically located distribution centres that accept materials from suppliers, organise them into ‘daypacks’, and then distribute them to the construction site in a just-in-time manner.\nThey can exist for a single project, or can be shared across multiple projects.\nCCCs are not right for every project. They have to be run the right way. And it’s not always easy to make the economic case.\nBut in many cases they provide a wide range of benefits to general contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers alike.\n\nHere are some of the many reasons you should consider using a CCC on your city-centre projects – if you aren’t already.\n\n#### **1 – More punctual deliveries**\nThe short distance from CCC to site – ideally less than 10 kilometres (Sulivan, Barthorpe and Robbins 2010) – means serious delays become much less likely. And the route being operated by the same drivers and vehicles means you can quickly understand any limiting factors and account for them. \n\nThis is not just theoretical.\n\nIn its final report, The London Construction Consolidation Centre (LCCC)  – a shared resource used by multiple sites in the UK’s capital – reported a delivery reliability rate of 97% versus 39% without (referring to correct deliveries made within 15 minutes of the agreed time).\n\n#### **2 – Quicker deliveries for suppliers**\nThe strategic location of consolidation centres means that suppliers’ vehicles don’t have to navigate congested city-centre streets or winding country lanes. They just go to the CCC, unload and return to base.\n\nIn doing so they spend most of their time on major transport corridors, skipping the slow and messy ‘final mile’.\n\nFor instance, the LCCC reduced total time spent by suppliers on their deliveries, including unloading, by an average of 2 hours, freeing up their staff and vehicles for other tasks.\n\n#### **3 – Reduction in traffic congestion**\nConsolidation centres allow goods from different suppliers to be aggregated together onto the same vehicle for the final leg of delivery. And the same vehicles can take away waste on the return journey.\n\nThis approach can go a long way to minimising the problem of partially-filled vehicles clogging urban streets en route to the site.\n \nWhile the vehicles from a CCC won’t always be fully laden – they are typically loaded with all the related materials for a particular task for a given day – the overall result is still a vast improvement. \n\nFor example, the Colnbrook Logistics Centre at Heathrow Airport reduced construction traffic by up to 50%, while LCCC reported figures as high as 70% for the final leg of the journey.\n\nThis not only means fewer vehicles stuck in congested city streets, but also reduced congestion for all road users, including those related to your own project.\n\nAs the saying goes, you are not stuck in traffic – you are traffic. \n\n#### **4 – Reduced CO2, pollution and social nuisance**\nBy reducing the number of vehicles on the road, consolidation centres can help reduce levels of CO2 and other pollutants.\n\nThe LCCC reported a 70-80% reduction in CO2 for final-leg deliveries. While the SUCCESS project, a pilot CCC scheme that took place in four cities in Europe, reported an average of 26% reduction in CO2, along with a 23% reduction in particulate matter.\n\nAnd then there’s the social impact in terms of noise and traffic. This is harder to measure, but fewer vehicles generally means a reduced impact on the final leg of the journey, which for urban projects is also most likely to have people in physical proximity. \n\nFurthermore, the vehicles making those journeys are likely to be under your control – or at least something you have a say in – meaning you can make sweeping improvements by updating the fleet, rather than having to petition suppliers to do the same.\n\n#### **5 – Loosening of the bottleneck at your site entrance**\nFewer vehicles arriving at the site means a lot of things.\n\n- Fewer instances of queuing at the site entrance\n- Fewer times when vehicles are forced to unload on-street\n- Fewer go-arounds\n- Fewer arguments between subcontractors\n- Fewer visits from the authorities\n\nIt also makes things easier on leaving, too...\n\nThere’s less of a squeeze to get off the site, which can be an issue on urban sites with limited access. And there are quite simply fewer muddy wheels to be washed, freeing up crew members for other tasks.\n\nA construction project at St Bart’s Hospital in London showed 2,239 fewer vehicles accessing the site in a 17-month period (Lundesjo 2011). \n\n–\n\nFor more on the benefits of CCCs, including insights into the following...\n\n- site security\n- on-site and off-site accidents\n- supply-chain issues\n- just-in-time deliveries\n\n\u002Fpagebreak\n\nIn [Part 1](https:\u002F\u002Fpropergate.co\u002Fblog\u002F15-reasons-you-should-use-a-construction-consolidation-centre?page=1) of this series, we talked about how construction consolidation centres (CCCs) can make deliveries faster and more punctual, reduce on-street congestion and environmental harm, and loosen bottlenecks at the site entrance.\n\nHere are another five ways that CCCs can make a difference, especially to construction sites in city centres:\n\n#### **6 – Tightening of security**\nInstead of having a motley collection of drivers turning up from many different suppliers – with all the security implications which that entails – you have the same small pool of drivers and vehicles arriving on site.\n\nThis gives you better control and vetting over those gaining access to the site.\n\nOf course, you can’t reduce site-bound supplier vehicles to zero, as some materials are poorly suited to off-site consolidation. Ready-mix concrete tends to pour less readily after sitting around in storage for a couple of weeks, just to give one example.\n\nBut in general it still offers a security advantage over the alternative. And for some sites (airports being one example) that can be a significant benefit.\n\n#### **7 – Lower risk of on-site accidents**\nConsolidation centres typically load materials onto pallets prior to transfer to the site, creating a more simplified unloading process on arrival at the site, which in turn reduces the risk of accidents.\n\nAnd higher punctuality – combined with fewer arrivals in general – reduces the pressure on the unloading crew to unload quickly.\n\nSupplier vehicles still need to be unloaded at the CCC, of course, and those vehicles still need to arrive to a schedule.\n\nBut this now happens in the more controlled and less pressured environment of the consolidation centre. As opposed to a busy construction site with subcontractors buzzing about, all competing to make progress towards their construction goals.\n\n#### **8 – Lower risk (and better reporting) of off-site accidents**\nA report commissioned by Transport for London noted that construction traffic in the British capital seemed to be involved in a disproportionately high number of accidents involving cyclists.\n\nPeter Hendy of TfL noted (via the Guardian), “If the driver is the person who owns the lorry, or his brother owns the lorry, and they've mortgaged the house to buy the lorry, they're under huge pressure to take an extra load that day, or two extra loads.”\n\nA CCC can help take the pressure off the final leg of the delivery (as well as reducing the amount of construction traffic in general).\n\nIt can also reduce the number of incidents slipping under the radar, at least during the final mile – that same TfL report noted that there was “a lack of ownership of road risk by clients and primary contractors”. \n\n#### **9 – Enabling of just-in-time deliveries**\nThe just-in-time philosophy has greatly increased the efficiency of logistics in the manufacturing and retail industries. But it has proved difficult to implement on construction sites thus far.\n\nConsolidation centres go a long way to helping change this, absorbing the inexactitude of the supply chain and translating it into a precision flow of materials arriving at the site exactly when required.\n\nThey do this by grouping required materials into task-based packages called ‘daypacks’, consisting of all the items needed to complete a task. These daypacks are then delivered exactly when needed, meaning no local storage is necessary.\n\nAnd the proximity of the centre to the site means that fine tuning of the timing of these deliveries can be easily accommodated. If a task suddenly needs to be put back to the next day, the centre can be highly responsive to this request. \n\n#### **10 – Buffering against supply chain issues**\nOn a typical site, supply chain issues could easily delay the construction itself. But consolidation centres create a buffer against these issues by allowing them to be pre-checked before being sent to the site.\t\n\nThus with the consolidation centre model, there’s time to return faulty or substandard materials and have them replaced, in many cases without impacting the final-mile delivery time.\n\n–\n\nFor more on CCCs, including insights into…\n\n- smoothing peaks and troughs\n- loss, theft, and damage\n- waste reduction\n- friction between subcontractors\n- working next to occupied buildings\n\n... go to part 3 of our guide [link to part 3].\n\n\u002Fpagebreak\n\nIn [Part 2](https:\u002F\u002Fpropergate.co\u002Fblog\u002F15-reasons-you-should-use-a-construction-consolidation-centre?page=2) of this series, we talked about how construction consolidation centres (CCCs) can help tighten security, reduce accidents, and provide a buffer against supply-chain issues. \n\n(Not to mention make just-in-time deliveries the norm.) \n\nHere are five more ways that CCCs can make a huge difference to urban construction projects.\n\n#### **11 – Better smoothing of delivery peaks and troughs**\nSuppliers all generally face the same constraints around deliveries, resulting in them jostling with each other for site access at specific times of day, such as mid-morning. This creates peaks and troughs of site arrivals that can be difficult to smooth.\n\nConsolidation centres make this much easier.\n\nNot only are there fewer vehicles arriving to the site in general, but the deliveries that do arrive are no longer dependent on the constraints of a host of different suppliers. And the local nature of a CCC also means that the need to ‘get back to base’ is less pressing. \n\n#### **12 – Reduction in loss, theft, and damage**\nOn an urban construction site, storage is typically shoehorned into whatever space is available, regardless of the actual spatial requirements. And as the project progresses, that shape can morph or even move entirely, creating a logistical headache of its own.\n\nA consolidation centre can greatly reduce the need for on-site storage, meaning a reduction in materials being lost, damaged, or even stolen.\n\nAnd this isn’t merely shifting the problem elsewhere.\n\nConsolidation centres are designed with storage and logistics in mind. They’re also operated by logistics professionals whose sole job is to manage the flow of materials, rather than as a side-concern of people who are trying to build things.\n\nCCCs aren’t the only way of solving this problem – a centralised logistics function coupled with good delivery management software (such as ProperGate) – can also make a big impact.\n\n#### **13 – Reduction in waste and wastage**\nWith a consolidation centre, deliveries are done in ‘daypacks’, enforcing planning as a necessity for receiving the materials.\n\nSubcontractors can still over-order, but their unneeded materials never actually make it as far as the construction site – they stay at the CCC. This makes them more readily available for reuse, and greatly reduces the chance of them ending up in landfill.\n\nAnd waste that is produced on-site – packaging, pallets, unused materials and so on – can be taken back to the CCC by the same vehicles. Meaning the consolidation centre can double as a de facto recycling and reuse centre.\n\nIt has benefits beyond just the ecological. In one WRAP case study, £200,000 of unused materials (38 full loads of 26-tonne lorries) remained at the centre at the end of the project, available for reuse, when they might have otherwise been designated as waste (Lundejo 2011).\n\n#### **14 – Reduced friction between subcontractors**\nAs mentioned in #11, suppliers all tend to want to deliver at similar times of the day.\n\nThis leads to subcontractors competing with each other to get their vehicles into a particular time slot, as well as for other shared resources like unloading equipment and storage space.\n\nOn top of this, when one subcontractor’s delivery runs late, it can directly affect those of others, leading to increased tensions and blame.\n\nThe outcome can be a toxifying of relationships between people who might otherwise have a more collaborative spirit.\n\nWith CCCs, the competitive aspect is greatly reduced. Everyone’s going to get their materials when they need them, and no one needs to fall out.\n\n#### **15 – The ability to continue works next to occupied buildings**\nThe closer your site is to inhabited spaces, the more acute the need for deliveries that respect human beings.\n\nOn some projects, work may even need to continue after one of the buildings has been finished and become occupied.\n\nThis situation exactly occurred on the Luxembourgish CCC pilot on the ‘SUCCESS’ project. It resulted in the site’s delivery window becoming tighter, on-site storage more restricted, and unloading options greatly reduced (the tower cranes were removed entirely).\n\nThankfully, a CCC is perfectly suited to the kind of surgical approach to deliveries that this demands – it means you can  \n\nThankfully, a CCC is perfectly suited to this kind of situation, as it allows you to take a surgical approach to deliveries. Only the right materials arrive at the site, and they do so perfectly on cue and in the optimal orientation for unloading.\n\n–\n\nProperGate’s software digitalises the delivery, storage, and onsite movement of materials to construction sites.\n\nAlready using a CCC on your project? We’re open to integration with all manner of systems and working circumstances.\n\nCCCs not an option for you? ProperGate can help deliver many of the same benefits thanks to its peerless software.\n\nGet in touch and arrange a demo today.","15-reasons-you-should-use-a-construction-consolidation-centre",{"id":10,"name":11,"published_at":12,"created_at":13,"updated_at":14,"picture":15},2,"Robert Grudzień","2021-07-14T09:08:38.200Z","2021-07-14T09:06:28.910Z","2021-08-02T07:35:47.577Z",{"id":16,"name":17,"alternativeText":18,"caption":18,"width":19,"height":19,"formats":20,"hash":30,"ext":24,"mime":25,"size":31,"url":32,"previewUrl":28,"provider":33,"provider_metadata":28,"created_at":34,"updated_at":35},4,"Zrzut ekranu 2021-07-14 o 11.07.39.png","",490,{"thumbnail":21},{"name":22,"hash":23,"ext":24,"mime":25,"width":26,"height":26,"size":27,"path":28,"url":29},"thumbnail_Zrzut ekranu 2021-07-14 o 11.07.39.png","thumbnail_Zrzut_ekranu_2021_07_14_o_11_07_39_a5ecb0c5cb",".png","image\u002Fpng",156,33.67,null,"\u002Fuploads\u002Fthumbnail_Zrzut_ekranu_2021_07_14_o_11_07_39_a5ecb0c5cb.png","Zrzut_ekranu_2021_07_14_o_11_07_39_a5ecb0c5cb",341.6,"\u002Fuploads\u002FZrzut_ekranu_2021_07_14_o_11_07_39_a5ecb0c5cb.png","local","2021-07-14T09:07:55.111Z","2021-08-02T07:35:44.253Z","Why are construction consolidation centres (CCCs) being increasingly used on complex, city-centre projects? Here are some very good reasons.","en","2021-07-25T20:24:13.784Z","2021-07-16T14:01:36.985Z","2021-08-19T14:21:37.980Z",{"id":42,"name":43,"alternativeText":18,"caption":18,"width":44,"height":45,"formats":46,"hash":75,"ext":50,"mime":51,"size":76,"url":77,"previewUrl":28,"provider":33,"provider_metadata":28,"created_at":78,"updated_at":79},5,"DSCF2037 2.jpg",6000,4000,{"thumbnail":47,"large":55,"medium":62,"small":69},{"name":48,"hash":49,"ext":50,"mime":51,"width":52,"height":26,"size":53,"path":28,"url":54},"thumbnail_DSCF2037 2.jpg","thumbnail_DSCF_2037_2_11fbd544ea",".jpg","image\u002Fjpeg",234,7.18,"\u002Fuploads\u002Fthumbnail_DSCF_2037_2_11fbd544ea.jpg",{"name":56,"hash":57,"ext":50,"mime":51,"width":58,"height":59,"size":60,"path":28,"url":61},"large_DSCF2037 2.jpg","large_DSCF_2037_2_11fbd544ea",1000,667,98.53,"\u002Fuploads\u002Flarge_DSCF_2037_2_11fbd544ea.jpg",{"name":63,"hash":64,"ext":50,"mime":51,"width":65,"height":66,"size":67,"path":28,"url":68},"medium_DSCF2037 2.jpg","medium_DSCF_2037_2_11fbd544ea",750,500,56.2,"\u002Fuploads\u002Fmedium_DSCF_2037_2_11fbd544ea.jpg",{"name":70,"hash":71,"ext":50,"mime":51,"width":66,"height":72,"size":73,"path":28,"url":74},"small_DSCF2037 2.jpg","small_DSCF_2037_2_11fbd544ea",333,26.94,"\u002Fuploads\u002Fsmall_DSCF_2037_2_11fbd544ea.jpg","DSCF_2037_2_11fbd544ea",2615.08,"\u002Fuploads\u002FDSCF_2037_2_11fbd544ea.jpg","2021-07-16T13:53:48.354Z","2021-07-16T13:53:48.366Z",[81,88],{"id":82,"name":83,"slug":84,"locale":37,"published_at":85,"created_at":86,"updated_at":87},7,"Construction Consolidation Center","construction-consolidation-center-en","2021-07-16T13:51:45.011Z","2021-07-16T13:51:32.394Z","2024-06-02T20:22:08.330Z",{"id":89,"name":90,"slug":91,"locale":37,"published_at":92,"created_at":93,"updated_at":94},8,"Sustainable construction","sustainable-construction","2021-07-16T13:52:22.273Z","2021-07-16T13:52:20.256Z","2021-07-16T13:52:22.289Z",[96,102],{"id":97,"name":98,"locale":37,"published_at":99,"created_at":100,"updated_at":101},1,"Logistics Coordinator","2021-07-25T21:10:06.479Z","2021-07-25T21:09:54.920Z","2021-07-25T21:10:06.494Z",{"id":10,"name":103,"locale":37,"published_at":104,"created_at":105,"updated_at":106},"Project manager","2021-07-25T21:10:12.871Z","2021-07-25T21:10:11.344Z","2021-07-25T21:10:12.883Z",[],{"en":109},"\u002Fblog\u002F15-reasons-you-should-use-a-construction-consolidation-centre",1792768572829]