In collaboration with Curtin University, road transport industry body Western Roads Federation has reached out to global experts for guidance on the impending decade of disruptive challenges facing the sector.
The industry is facing a decade of multiple challenges, such as decarbonisation, including on which alternative fuel, disruptive technology (drones, AI and automation), geo-political and climate related supply disruptions, stagnant productivity and continuing skills shortages.
“The freight industry as many other industries increasingly operates in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment,” Dr Florian Scheuring, associate professor of supply chain management at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, says.
Compounding the challenges are that many parts of the industry enter this period with very low profit margins, increasing risks to commercial viability and capacity for sustained investment risk.
A key question will be identifying a path forward that is environmentally and commercially sustainable, yet sufficiently resilient to meet growing threats.
This question and others will be addressed by a global panel, convened by WRF and associate professor of supply chain management and logistics at Curtin University, Dr Liz Jackson.
The panel comprises:
- Sweden: Professor Maria Huge-Brodin, Professor of Environmental Logistics Management, Linköping University – Institute of Technology
- Scotland: Dr Florian Scheuring, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management in the Marketing & Operations department at the Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University
- England: Dr Erica Ballantyne, Senior Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management, Sheffield University Management School, University of Sheffield
- Dr Hermione Parsons, CEO of the Australian Logistics Council
- Matt Munro, CEO of the Australian Trucking Association
The panel has proved extremely popular, with the audience now expanding beyond the transport industry to include policy makers from multiple states, industry regulators, advisors and educators.
This panel session builds on the work Western Roads Federation has undertaken with the Green Sphere Project, Curtin University and Edith Cowan University into researching methods of providing commercial advantage to reward companies regardless of size who are rising to meet the decade of challenge.
“I am confident our industry can meet the challenges but the underlying risks to our industry and hence the economy, are real, so we need a pathway,” WRF CEO Cam Dumesny says.