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Logistics

22 images Created 20 Nov 2008

20 images from the book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton, published by Penguin in April 2009.

Here are the vast logistics warehouse complexes at DIRFT in the Midlands and Sainbury's depot on the M25, showing the food-miles that products make to satisfy our insatiable appetite for speed and freshness.

The book pictures are reproduced in black and white but all appear here in colour.

A blog story about the project's photography is at:
http://wp.me/p3fbj-4j

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  • The form of a giant generic warehouse glows from ambient light at the DIRFT warehouse logistics park in Daventry, Northamptonshire England. Bare trees without foliage are seen in the foreground on this cold winter night. We see the building low in the picture and the sky graduates from light into near darkness. This 365 acre site off Junction 18 of the M1 motorway is a hub for road, rail and service infrastructure, some 2.3m sq.ft. of distribution and manufacturing floorspace had been constructed by 2004 and occupiers including Tesco?s, Tibbett & Britten plc, Ingram Micro, Royal Mail, the W.H. Malcolm Group, Eddie Stobart Ltd, Wincanton and Exel, have been attracted to this unique logistics location.
    DIRFT057-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • Alongside the A5 highway, an industrial landscape is illuminated in light from roadside street-lighting. Reeds are in the foreground in front of a giant generic warehouse that glows from its own territory. Grass is next to the crash-barrier and faint mist is seen on this cold winter night at the DIRFT warehouse logistics park in Daventry, Northamptonshire England. This 365 acre site off Junction 18 of the M1 motorway is a hub for road, rail and service infrastructure, some 2.3m sq.ft. of distribution and manufacturing floorspace had been constructed by 2004 and occupiers including Tesco?s, Tibbett & Britten plc, Ingram Micro, Royal Mail, the W.H. Malcolm Group, Eddie Stobart Ltd, Wincanton and Exel, have been attracted to this unique logistics location.
    DIRFT041-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • Cross-docking sign at goods-in for departing lorries taking nationwide Royal Mail post from DIRFT logistics park in Daventry
    DIRFT156-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • In front of an industrial doorway with a safety handrail and near empty parking bay markings, a stencilled arrow points from left to right at the DIRFT warehouse logistics park in Daventry, Northamptonshire England. Bright light glows from the warehouse wall, shining on to the car park creating an almost daylight landscape. This 365 acre site off Junction 18 of the M1 motorway is a hub for road, rail and service infrastructure, some 2.3m sq.ft. of distribution and manufacturing floorspace had been constructed by 2004 and occupiers including Tesco?s, Tibbett & Britten plc, Ingram Micro, Royal Mail, the W.H. Malcolm Group, Eddie Stobart Ltd, Wincanton and Exel, have been attracted to this logistics location.
    DIRFT089-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • Lights from industrial night traffic speeding on the A5 at the DIRFT warehouse logistics park in Daventry,
    DIRFT042-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • Wearing a high-vis tabard and peaked cap, a young driver sits at the wheel of his HGV lorry on the A3 trunk road in London
    new_england26-27-11-2007.jpg
  • Foodstuffs progress through real-time ordering and delivery technology at Sainsbury's 700,000 sq ft distribution depot
    sainsburys_depot138-09-05-2007.jpg
  • Speeding postal worker in the processing depot of Royal Mail's DIRFT logistics park in Daventry, Northamptonshire England.
    DIRFT208-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • Postal workers play table football in the canteen during a night shift at Royal Mail's DIRFT logistics park in Daventry
    DIRFT200-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • The rear of a cab, its chassis and hydraulic control hoses of an HGV lorry parked at a supermarket distribution depot
    sainsburys_depot191-09-05-2007.jpg
  • A Royal Mail lorry speeds up the darkening M1 motorway loaded with parcels and letters.
    DIRFT019-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • Red clock hangs from warehouse roof of cross-docking area of of Royal Mail's DIRFT logistics park in Daventry
    DIRFT168-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • Yellow painted lanes on the floor of Sainsbury's 700,000 sq ft (57,500sq m) supermarket distribution depot at Waltham Point
    sainsburys_depot113-09-05-2007.jpg
  • A long-distance lorry is parked at the Sainsbury's 700,000 sq ft (57,500sq m) supermarket warehouse and distribution depot at Waltham Point London England. With round wheels echoing the circles of oranges, long-distance vehicles depart every two minutes, 24 hours a day, 364 days a year to 80 UK stores and handling 2.5m supermarket cases a week. Transporting refrigerated perishable foodstuffs, these lorries are ever-present on the nation's motorways and A roads, plying back and forth to re-supply the supermarkets. Food orders are conveyed with sorter systems that group products together, ordering them to favour the layout of specific stores, optimising how the shelves are stacked..
    sainsburys_depot123-09-05-2007.jpg
  • An aerial view overlooking the processing depot of Royal Mail's DIRFT logistics park in Daventry, Northamptonshire England. Commercial postage of catalogues, junk mail and brochures pass through this enormous complex where some of the UK's 82 million items pass through. Royal Mail handles some 82 million posted items a day. They have a statutory duty to provide a delivery service to 27 million addresses in the UK for letters and for parcels weighing up to 20kg. Six days a week they deliver daily to all addresses in the UK and provides a collection service from 115,000 Post Boxes, 16,000 Post Offices, businesses and organizations throughout the UK and distributed through 72 mail centres and 100 distribution centres such as DIRFT.
    DIRFT176-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • Foodstuffs progress through real-time ordering and delivery technology at Sainsbury's 700,000 sq ft distribution depot
    sainsburys_depot107-09-05-2007.jpg
  • Foodstuffs progress through real-time ordering and delivery technology at Sainsbury's 700,000 sq ft distribution depot
    sainsburys_depot067-09-05-2007.jpg
  • Detail of the Siemens Integrated Mail Processor (SIMP) operated by the Royal Mail at their Nine Elms sorting office Vauxhall, London. Developed in the mid-1990s it is the backbone of Royal Mail's system and Nine Elms is the biggest and most modern sorting office in Britain, employing 1,000 people and handling all post coming from/to south London: 1.1 million first-class items a day, 750,000 second class. Royal Mail handles some 82 million posted items a day. They have a statutory duty to provide a delivery service to 27 million addresses in the UK for letters and for parcels weighing up to 20kg. Six days a week they deliver daily to all addresses in the UK and provides a collection service from 115,000 Post Boxes, 16,000 Post Offices, businesses and organizations throughout the UK and distributed through 72 mail centres and 100 distribution centres.
    nine_elms_35.jpg
  • Letters about to be sorted by the Royal Mail operated Siemens Integrated Mail Processor operated at Nine Elms sorting office
    nine_elms_66.jpg
  • Moving fast past a farmhouse building on a busy UK A road, unseen traffic leaves its light trails on an otherwise dark winter night near the giant DIRFT warehouse logistics park in Daventry, Northamptonshire England. Some rooms are lit in this remote residence which show signs of occupation. Red tail lights from cars, lorries and trucks streak by with tall traces of container traffic leaves light on the picture, diagonally leaving their mark. It is a very busy highway on which to own a home but this infrastructure is a vital route that keeps Britain's logistics moving across the country 24/7.
    DIRFT098-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • An HGV driver awaits his lorry to be loaded at Sainsbury's 700,000 sq ft (57,500sq m) supermarket distribution depot
    sainsburys_depot124-09-05-2007.jpg
  • A delivery man pushes a goods cage and passes-by a pool of bright reflective light in the financial City of London.
    city_landscape04-30-01-2013.jpg
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