The Australian Logistics Council (ALC) — representing Australia’s road, rail, sea and air logistics providers — has released a discussion paper aimed at boosting the efficiency and sustainability of the Australian logistics industry. The report titled: “A Smarter Supply Chain — Using Information & Communications Technology (ICT) to Increase Productivity in the Australian Transport Logistics Industry”, hopes to lead to implementation of measures to increase the efficient use of infrastructure, cut costs to consumers and reduce CO2 emissions.

“Transport & logistics companies hold a unique position in the supply chain because they are typically high users of existing and new information”, said ALC CEO, Michael Kilgariff.

“The most efficient supply chains worldwide leverage real-time information and ensure real collaboration between partners, whether this is within a closedloop, across the industry, or across the entire economy,” he said.

“Smart Supply Chains must be sustainable and it is clear that the enhancements that have most economic benefit come with efficiencies that will accelerate the reduction of CO2, but there is more that can be done to enhance the reduction of CO2 with innovative ICT applications.

“The ideal logistics system smoothly delivers goods where they are needed, when they are needed, with the least amount of cost, energy, carbon, pollution, noise, congestion and harm. This involves minimising wait time and handling during the transport of goods to their final destination.

“For most freight, speed between nodes (e.g. freight hubs) is not as important as consistent flow. This is different to passenger transport where speed between nodes (e.g. stations) is a key requirement.

This difference in requirements highlights the need to have dedicated freight corridors linking key nodes that can run large volumes of freight at steady speed, timed to load/unload at each node, Kilgariff explained.

This has the added advantage of keeping down total cost, energy, carbon, pollution and noise, as well as reducing congestion and improving safety, including on passenger networks, which may currently be operating on the same infrastructure, he added.

The ALC Discussion Paper is available as a free download from the ALC website at www.austlogistics.com.au.