To celebrate the publication of our freight and logistics strategy, our creative colleague, and Principal Policy Officer Freight and Logistics, Lucy Hudson, has given the Clement Clarke Moore classic a ‘Freightmas’ twist.
‘Twas the night before Freightmas, when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The freight strategy was hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of Amazon parcels on rails danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed, a freight train, the peace did shatter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to the transport network below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a new e-cargo bike, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, as so many of them are, but so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his main strategic issues came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now, DASHER! now, DANCER! now, network capacity and capability!
On, COMET! on CUPID! on, decarbonisation and terminal availability!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As dry leaves that before the freight policy positions fly,
When they meet with a challenge, to STP 2 apply,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of projects and solutions, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little decarbonised hoof.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
Down the east coast St. Nicholas short-sea shipped with a bound.
He was dressed all in orange, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
All of Wei’s fantastic modelling and analysis he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes how they twinkled! His electric van how merry!
His local freight tool was like a rose, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the emissions from hydrogen as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a spare lorry and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A honk of a train horn and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And delivered all the strategy recommendations; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the North he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
HAPPY FREIGHTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!
And to read the gift that is our Freight Strategy, click on the cover below:
