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Westminster Council is to allow unlimited time for loading before 11am in a trial of 40-minute delivery slots. Under the current system there is no time limit on deliveries before 11am, but between 11am and 6.30pm drivers are limited to 20 minutes.

In June the London Council agreed to double the loading/unloading limit to 40 minutes, but at the same time the council extended this limit to pre-11am deliveries. Local authorities have been left to come up with their own interpretation  of the rules. Some, including Kensington and Chelsea and Islington, have introduced a blanket 40-minute loading limit.

The Freight Transport Association has welcomed Westminster's approach and called on other authorities to follow suit. Natalie Chapman, FTA regional policy manager for London, says: "There is an issue of inconsistency across the boroughs which needs to be addressed. We are very supportive of Westminster's retention of the 11am rule because there are deliveries which do take longer than 40 minutes.

"There is a disposition system set up, but it is aimed at one-off deliveries, not those that consistently take longer than 40 minutes, and this could cause some big problems." Chapman is also concerned that the rule only applies to vehicles over 3.5 tonnes: "We feel this should apply to all delivery vehicles."

The Westminster trial will run for six months during which the council hopes to reduce the number of parking tickets  issued for this type of offence by 25%. It follows six months of research into loading arrangements by Westminster City Council's Parking Team who rode in trucks to gain first-hand experience of delivery problems. They found the amount of space allocated for unloading was generally sufficient, but the time allocated was not.