Everyone in Kent is familiar with Operation Stack, the traffic management system that closes sections of the M20 to queue port and tunnel bound HGVs when there is cross-channel disruption. Reported on national traffic news, closing the M20 leads to major congestion on other roads in Kent as they take traffic diverted from the M20.

This posed several questions - were Kent's businesses adversely affected by changing travel to work patterns? For example, did leaving work early or late, or working from home reduce productive business hours? Had business been lost because of Operation Stack? Had the perception of Operation Stack happening more often than it does, mean that businesses had lost out when seeking new business?

In 2005 we commissioned a special study into the Economic Impact of Operation Stack on businesses in Kent. We tried to quantify costs, changed behaviours and general business impact - the case-studies of Leeds Castle and Nagel Logistics are particularly interesting.