01
Why a ring is not a radius
A ring measures the whole cost of an address to a day, and the drive is only one part of that cost. Time spent at a booked gate, in a holding area or waiting for a forklift is time the following drops never get back. Once that is counted properly, the nearest ground stops being the cheapest ground, because the perimeter addresses that sit within a few miles of Slough are the ones that take longest at the door. The effect is that ring one is the closest ring and also the most tightly planned, while ring three reaches twenty-odd miles west and moves faster than either.
02
Ring one, inside the perimeter road
Ring one · perimeter leg
Colnbrook, Poyle, Longford, Harmondsworth, Sipson, Stanwell and the cargo centres inside the perimeter road.
Every address here is entered through a controlled gate, and the gate is the constraint rather than the mileage. A vehicle is expected at a stated time with paperwork that matches the booking, and a driver arriving without one of those is turned back to the holding area. Once a vehicle is inside, the ground is worked in a single pass, since a second entry costs the same checks as the first. The effect is that ring one is planned as one block of the day rather than as a string of separate drops.
03
Ring two, the near estates
Ring two · perimeter leg
Langley, Iver, Datchet, Windsor, Uxbridge, West Drayton, Hayes and the trading estates around Slough itself.
These are ordinary industrial and commercial addresses with ordinary access, and most of them want a tail-lift because there is no dock. Distances are measured in single-figure miles, so the vehicle spends more of its time unloading than it spends driving. Once the perimeter block is finished, the same vehicle picks these up on its way back, which is why the two rings share a departure. The effect is that a ring two delivery is usually made in the afternoon of the day its booking was taken.
04
Ring three, the valley west
Ring three · western leg
Burnham, Taplow, Maidenhead, Bray, Twyford, Wokingham, Bracknell and Reading.
The valley west is the ground the day starts with, because it is the only ring a vehicle can work and return from before the corridor fills again. Access is generally straightforward, yards are larger and a fair number of the addresses have a dock, so the drops themselves are quick. Once the western leg has left, the ring is committed for the day and a later booking for the same towns joins the following morning instead. The effect is that ring three carries the earliest cut-off of the three legs despite being the furthest ordinary ground.
05
Ring four, beyond the day
Ring four · late leg and handover
Ground a vehicle cannot reach and return from inside one working day, including the London side of the M25 and the corridor west of Reading.
Freight for ring four is loaded on the late leg and handed to the overnight pallet network, which delivers it from its own depot the next day. Nothing about that ground is unusual; it simply lies outside the distance a Slough vehicle can cover and still be back to reload. Once the handover is made the movement is tracked against the same booking reference, so a question about it is still answered by the office at Slough. The effect is that ring four is a next-day ring by construction rather than by choice.
06
The cut-offs, ring by ring
The table gathers what the four sections above describe, and the clock figures in it are the ones the office plans against.
| Ring | Departure | Leaves | Booking closes | Usually delivered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One · the perimeter | Perimeter leg | 11:30 | 10:30 | same day, early afternoon |
| Two · near estates | Perimeter leg | 11:30 | 10:30 | same day, afternoon |
| Three · valley west | Western leg | 07:00 | 06:30 | same day, morning onward |
| Four · beyond the day | Late leg | 16:00 | 15:00 | next day, from the network depot |
A booking that misses its own cut-off is not lost; it joins the next departure that reaches the same ring, and for ring three that is the following morning. By then the western leg has been planned around the loads that arrived in time, so the later booking is planned first on the new sheet.
07
What moves a cut-off earlier
A ring carries a standing cut-off, and four conditions at the receiving point pull an individual booking in front of it.
- A booked gate slot
- An address that issues a timed entry sets the hour the vehicle has to be there, and the load is planned backwards from that hour instead of from the departure.
- Early closing
- A receiving point that stops taking deliveries in the early afternoon is reached on the first pass of its ring, which moves the practical cut-off forward.
- A vehicle class the address forces
- An address that only a small vehicle can enter waits for a small vehicle, and there are fewer of those on any given leg.
- A load that needs equipment on site
- Freight wanting a forklift or a dock is booked against an address that has one, and the availability of that equipment sets the hour rather than the ring does.
Once one of the four is known at the time of booking, it is written on the sheet beside the drop and the leg is planned around it. The effect is that a condition stated on the first morning costs nothing, while the same condition discovered at the door costs the rest of the run.
The thirteen sections of the dispatch sheet are set out here.