Increase urban freight efficiency with delivery and servicing plan

Delivery and Servicing Plan (DSP) is an innovative logistics concept for more efficient organisation of deliveries from the point of view of the receiver of the goods. DSP actions tested in this study include reducing the number of suppliers, grouping deliveries, selecting less distant suppliers and others. It is shown that DSP can help reduce externalities and lead to a substantial reduction of costs. A new tool was developed to calculate the benefits of different DSP options for businesses and the public sector. Reductions in costs and externalities exceeding 50% have been demonstrated in a few cases. Remaining difficulties with the concept are organisational issues, lack of knowledge, need to give external advisory support for shop owners and the limited number of successful applications to date.

A repeated measures experiment of school playing environment to increase physical activity and enhance self esteem in UK school children

School playtime provides daily opportunities for children to be active outdoors, but only makes small contributions to physical activity (PA) requirements. Natural environments facilitate unstructured PA and children report a preference for play in nature. Thus, play on the school field might encourage children to be more active during playtime. The primary aim of this study was to examine the impact of the school playing environment on children's PA. Descriptive data and fitness were assessed in 25 children aged 8–9 years from a single primary school. Over two consecutive weeks participants were allocated to either play on the school field or playground during playtime. The order of play in the two areas was randomised and counterbalanced. Moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) was assessed during playtime on the last two days of each week using accelerometers. There was a significant interaction of environment and sex on MVPA during morning play (F(1,22) = 6.27; P<0.05; np2 = 0.222), but not during lunch (P>0.05; np2 = 0.060) or all of playtime combined (P>0.05; np2 = 0.140). During morning play boys were significantly more active than girls on the playground (t(23) = 1.32; P<0.01; n2 = 0.291), but not on the field (P>0.05; n2 = 0.071). For lunch (F(1,22) = 24,11; P<0.001; np2 = 0.523) and all of playtime combined (F(1,22) = 33.67; P<0.001; np2 = 0.616) there was a significant effect of environment. There was also a significant main effect of sex during lunch (F(1,22) = 11.56; P<0.01; np2 = 0.344) and all of playtime combined (F(1,22) = 12.37; P<0.01; np2 = 0.371). MVPA was higher on the field and boys were more active than girls. Play on the field leads to increases in MVPA, particularly in girls. The promising trend for the effect of the natural environment on MVPA indicates that interventions aimed at increasing MVPA should use the natural environment and that schools should encourage greater use of their natural areas to increase PA.

Board attributes that increase firm risk - evidence from the UK

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to identify the board attributes that significantly increase firm risk. The study aims to find if board size, percentage of non-executive directors, women on the board, a powerful CEO, equity ownership amongst executive board directors and institutional investor ownership, are associated with firm risk. This is the first study that examines which board attributes increase firm risk using a UK based sample. Design/methodology/approach – This empirical study collected secondary data from Bloomberg and Morningstar databases. The data sample is an unbalanced panel of 260 companies’ secondary data on FTSE 350 index in the UK, from 2005 to 2010. The data was statistically analysed using STATA. Findings – The study establishes the board attributes that were significantly related to firm risk. The results show that a board which can increase firm risk is one that is small in size,has high equity ownership amongst executive board directors and has high institutional investor ownership. Research limitations/implications – The governance culture and regulatory system in the UK is different from other countries. Since the data is a UK based sample, the results can lack generalisability. Practical implications – The results are useful for investors who invest in large firms, to have the knowledge about the board attributes that can increase firm risk. Regulators can also use the results to strengthen regulatory guidelines. Originality/value – This study fills the gap in knowledge in UK governance literature on the board attributes that can increase firm risk.