Noise guidelines and regulation
While there are often greenhouse gas and regional air quality benefits from night deliveries, noise has a significant potential to affect local communities. Noise from night deliveries is produced by:
- heavy vehicle movements on local streets and at the premises
- movement alarms ('reversing beepers')
- noise from unloading and from material-handling equipment and
- vehicle idling and refrigeration
- voices
Noise is managed through statutory controls and noise guidelines.
The statutory noise policy that sets noise limits for aspects of noise emitted from premises is the State Environment Protection Policy (Control of Noise from Commerce, Industry and Trade) No. N-1 , (SEPP N-1).
In addition to the issues managed under SEPP N-1, movement alarm, unloading noise and noise generated off the premises pose a high risk of affecting communities. These issues need careful management in order to ensure that the sleep of residents is protected.
A common way to avoid these impacts is to follow EPA's Noise Control Guidelines, Publication 1254
There is currently no definitive set of measures that will allow freight delivery while protecting local communities during night time deliveries. No one measure is likely to resolve all issues, although good planning and design is likely to have the greatest overall benefit.
The ultimate test for whether night deliveries are viable is compliance with SEPP N-1 and ensuring that local residents' sleep is not disturbed. Quality community engagement and feedback is critical for any trials along with efforts to stop inappropriate developments that encroach on commercial or retail precincts without having regard to land-use conflict and the needs of local business.
The issue is not just for business. If noise restrictions make goods and services too expensive in local retail or commercial operations, then the viability of such operations, local jobs or the local shops existence could be threatened. This may reduce the value in nearby residential property and require excess travel to alternate retail or commercial centres to obtain goods and services, along with concurrent adverse environmental, safety and other impacts.