Take inefficiencies out of supply chain, industry urged

The nation’s freight transport sector needed a comprehensive and co-ordinated strategy to raise productivity, Victorian Transport Association’s Logistics Managers Group (LMG) said today (Friday, June 8). The group also drew attention to calls from some quarters in the transport industry for the hiring of foreign workers through extension of the 457 visa program, but cited &#8220the urgent need for higher productivity outcomes and philosophies as a far more appropriate approach&#8221. &#8220Domestic based manufacturing operations are facing increased global competition and other freight generators, such as the major retail chains, have growing freight tasks in an environment which is constrained &#8211 these present as key challenges facing our industry,&#8221 Anthony Feneley, LMG chairman and SCA Hygiene Australasia group logistics manager, said. &#8220The upshot is that the transport industry must collaborate with its customers &#8211 the freight owners &#8211 to take the inefficiencies out of the supply chain. Operators need to demonstrate leadership in the freight transport task and add value to their customer’s freight task.&#8221 The LMG believed that beyond the simple customer&#47 carrier relationship, there was a serious need for a paramount breakthrough in transport infrastructure, coupled with more productive freight vehicles, to reduce the cost of doing business. This was especially important for domestic manufacturers struggling to remain cost efficient in the face of increased global competition in the Australian marketplace. &#8220There is an urgent need for closer cooperation between industry &#8211 the freight owners and their carriers – regulators and government alike and a need to move away from an emphasis of states competing and outdoing each other to an Australia versus the rest of the world mentality,&#8221 the LMG said. &#8220Leading industry figures are seeing this as a challenging time for industry, overlaid with increasing regulatory and compliance disciplines in terms of OH&#38S, fatigue management and the new chain of responsibility requirements which, combined, may drastically alter the way the freight task is performed within Australia.&#8221 Staff shortages have been an emerging problem in the transport and distribution segment for years, with the average age of drivers now approaching 50, the industry is struggling to attract younger workers to replace those that are exiting. &#8220It is tempting for companies to look offshore as an immediate way of attacking this issue, but while this may provide a short term solution, alternative options do exist which are likely to provide more lasting outcomes to the current driver shortage challenge,&#8221 Mr Feneley said. &#8220There is a real balancing act that needs to come into play, between the need to address staffing needs and shortages and the critical requirement to employ reliable, qualified, OH&#38S savvy, compliance aware, long term staffing solutions. &#8220The industry needs a makeover to regain its attractiveness to a new generation of potential drivers, yard &#38 fleet managers, etc.&#8221 The regulatory environment is superimposing itself onto the operating landscape. There are a host of operational restrictions that currently have a flow-on, even in terms of existing staff. Add to this the looming changes in fatigue management, coupled with the inevitable advent of 24&#477 working arrangements and we see challenges that an injection of foreign workers alone will simply not be able to meet. &#8220In more recent years, a relentless focus on eliminating waste through the supply chain has held the potentially negative aspects of a rapidly growing freight task at bay. It is in the interests of the entire community that not only this focus continue &#8211 but that the productivity ethos that had historically characterised the development of freight transport in Australia, be urgently restored,&#8221 Mr Feneley said. &#8220The last real ground-shift in the Australian freight task &#8211 B-Doubles &#8211 occurred more than 15 years ago. More efficient vehicles, development of new technologies and improvements in the rail sector are all things for which industry has been pushing for years. &#8220All of these, pursued and embraced, present as practical and systemic solutions to the numerous challenges in the Australian freight task, and obviate the need for engaging foreign workers &#8211 an initiative which would be on the very margin, in terms of making a real difference.&#8221

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