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Boost for freight, supply chain performance

Newly available data capturing Australia’s freight and supply chain performance over road and rail is expected to help freight operators and the businesses they support to improve their operations, save on costs and grow on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Federal Government has launched the Supply Chain Benchmarking Dashboard, which provides detailed and interactive modelling of Australian transport and logistics supply chains. 

Developed with the CSIRO, it covers 130 commodities using data taken from 65 per cent of road and 95 per cent of rail freight trips over the last five years to outline: 

  • Freight task costs and value, including cost per payload tonne or kilometre 
  • Travel distances and durations 
  • Supply chain movements between businesses 

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said helping freight operators and businesses to better understand freight and logistics costs and evaluate freight performance across the network will help drive productivity and efficiency gains across various sectors. 

“With COVID-19 significantly disrupting global supply chains, driving up costs and making it harder to keep goods moving, this initiative is welcome news for freight operators, producers and exporting businesses,” he said. 

“The more informed industries and businesses are, the better they perform. That’s why the Government is investing $16.5 million over four years to improve freight data through the National Freight Data Hub and providing freely available resources such as this benchmarking dashboard. 

“It provides industry with a comprehensive understanding of Australian supply chain performance that we can benchmark against international comparators to drive improvements and reduce costs across supply chains. 

“From grains and construction materials to apples to zinc, the dashboard shows how we get regional exports to port, goods to market and supplies to communities across the nation. 

“Access to these insights also provides exciting opportunities for research, cost-efficiencies and targeted planning, improving the overall performance of Australia’s freight system.” 

More reading

National Freight Data Hub launched