This assignment aims to provide the brief about the concept of Intermodal Company and important features of the Intermodal companies. This report includes identifying various operational challenges that Australian Intermodal companies face and an analysis report of the logistics management strategies which the Intermodal Company can implement to resolve any issues. This report also includes the journal articles which support the analysis of problems and the solutions to the challenges which the companies can implement to resolve the problem.
The concept of Intermodal Companies is to transfer the freight using different modes of transport such as rails, ships, trucks, etc. This helps to reduce the overall cost of the freights by reducing the number of manpower required, damage to the product and loss of the freight. With the help of Intermodal companies, the import-export companies can save their time by selecting the mode of transport which is best efficient. Also, it provides security by using the load securing methods (Richards, 2014).
Below are the main features of Intermodal companies:
Flexibility: The Intermodal companies have enough experience and professional employees, that meet the users demands at any cost, and have the potential to meet the deadlines. They can adjust to any challenges like those of traffic congestion, fatigue, high pressure of work, bad weather conditions such as snowfalls and high temperatures in summers, to meet the expectations of the clients. They have enough storage facilities in various cities of the country to fulfill the demand on time. The Intermodal companies take pride in their work and deliver the freights in a secure and efficient fashion (Association, 2014).
Outside the box strategies: The Intermodal companies implement the best strategies or techniques to minimize the cost of transferring the freights to the destination, with high level of security. To overcome all the challenges that the Intermodal companies may face while transferring the packages, they examine the best solutions which can help increase the overall income of the company with a substantial amount of profits. While implementing the strategies, they also take care of all the manpower to have some relaxation so that they can have lesser fatigue. They also calculate all the tolls and taxes, beforehand when the company has to incur all the transportation charges to save some dollars of the customers and build a long term business partnership (UNESCAP, 2005).
Experience: This feature of Intermodal company showcases the experience of all the employees who manages the stock and inventory. They deal with the other companies to deliver all the goods on time. The Logistics graph of the company gives the idea about the reputation of the company and the level of satisfaction the customer has from their services. The level of experienced Intermodal companies can be judged from the tracking and shipping process; they provide to the customers from the time when the freight dispatched from the source location to the delivery of the freight to the destination with a high level of security (Russel, 2011).
Traceability: Traceability of the freights can be checked through the technological method used by the company. In this technological era, 90% of the businesses are online. This is also an easy solution to all the problems, whether to track the location of the package or to control and manage the stocks and inventory. The ERP systems used by the company to track stocks and inventory help the businesses and customers to know about the estimated delivery date of the package. More accurate is the tracking, greater will be the customer satisfaction which has directly led to the current position of the intermodal company in the country.
Inbound services: To get the earlier delivery of the package, some of the Intermodal companies provide the facility to the customer to get their package with a premium plan which costs some more dollars to the customers than regular charges. The customers can get the quick delivery of the package in fewer days with high level of security (Moorebank, 2013).
Logistics refers to the start to the end process of the delivery of the products to the customers via transportation initiating to the packing, storage, purchasing, recycling and managing stock controls. It is generally defined as the supply chain management. Almost every business faces logistic challenges on a daily basis. Although, these are the small challenges, which can be handled within a short period of time and with minimum efforts, few of these challenges are long term which need to be handled by the professionals, using their expertise on how to overcome the problem in an efficient and effective manner. The main problems which the Intermodal companies in Sydney face due to the current logistics are as follows:
Geographical challenges: The Intermodal Companies in Australia face geographical challenges as per the division of different regional and urban areas.
Distance: This is a major problem faced by the Intermodal companies due to the large distance between the different states or cities of the country. To travel between the cities, for example, Melbourne to Sydney, one has to cover a large distance of approximately 880 kms. To travel such a large distance, drivers may indulge in drug abuse to remain awake during their journey, which may lead to an accident and a severe injury to the driver along with monetary loss to both the transporting organization and the one whose goods are being transferred. Also, it may result in loss of life. Some drivers also do overtime work which increases the work pressure and their fatigue and they often cross the speed limits to deliver the packages on time. Another challenge faced by the Intermodal company due to distance is the availability of the petrol pumps to get enough fuel to reach the destination. Companies have to plan beforehand, about the number of fuel stations available in the journey, security of the packages and the drivers, time and efforts required by the drivers etc.
Animals: The animals roaming down the street such as kangaroos are the greatest threat to the packages and the vehicle driver. The drivers may encounter with an accident while driving a vehicle in sub urban areas of the country due to the sudden appearance of wild animals in front of the vehicle.
Conditions of roads: Although the condition of roads in all the parts of the Australia is good, due to the larger population and the crowd in some parts of the country, the roads may require frequent and proper maintenance. The potholes in between the roads reduce the acceleration speed of the vehicle which may increase the delivery time of the package. This also leads to thinking over the security concern of the package, as the packages that are fragile may break due to poor condition of the roads (Fagan, 2007).
Traffic congestion: The traffic in the major cities of the Australia such as Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane etc. have much more traffic as compared to the other parts of the country. However, the government has implemented the strategies to reduce the traffic congestion in the country but it failed, as they have bye-passed the roads for the heavy vehicles. To deliver the package in the city, driver has to travel long distance which leads to fatigue and delay in the delivery of the package. Also, increase in the number of vehicles in the city reduces the speed of the vehicle. During the peak hours, in the morning, for example, the people have to reach their offices and children to their schools, and in the evening to get back to their homes during the same peak hours, increases the traffic in the cities. This is a general problem, which comes under a long-term challenge category for the intermodal companies.
Toll roads: Roads constructed by the private contractors, collects the tax or fee from the vehicles to redeem the cost of construction of the roads and their maintenance. These private contractors fix the amount of fee, which is calculated on the basis of type of vehicle, one-way or round trips, etc. The intermodal companies calculate the cost of tolls to deliver the package to the destination. As most of the roads are constructed by the private contractors, the cost of toll may increase with the increase in the distance, which is a challenge to the intermodal companies. This also increases the delivery time as the vehicle drivers has to wait in a long queues of vehicles to pay the toll on toll barrier points.
Change in roads: As mentioned above, the heavy vehicles are by-passed to reduce the traffic congestion in the cities. Due to long routes to reach the destination, cost of delivering the package may increase. The intermodal company has to calculate the overall cost of the delivery if they have to incur the cost of the transportation. Also, due to the change in roads, a vehicle driver may have to drive through the toll roads as discussed above. The change in roads, in the end increases the traveling time and delay in the delivery of the package (Cole, Penne, Furst, & Stoner, 2008).
These challenges refer to the change in climatic conditions, and natural disasters which may occur anytime in the country,
Climatic conditions: Changes in the seasons such as in winters, due to the snowfall, the heavy vehicles with multi axle tires, stuck in the traffic due to road closures, which leads to the delay in the delivery of the packages. In Summer seasons, there may be the delivery of the packages in the vehicles which may require cooler temperature, but due to high temperature in Australia from April to September, the Intermodal companies have to take this issue as a high risk or challenge to deliver the package to the destination (Systematics, 1999).
Natural disasters: There may be a natural disaster in Australia, which may lead to loss of packages and the tools and equipment. After the natural disaster, the demand of products may also increase, with the security and timely delivery, which is a major challenge to the intermodal companies during the times.
These challenges include the funding disagreements, quarantine, transport regulations, worker safety, etc. Intermodal Companies have to take the proper legal licensing from the State Government to move the packages from one place to another. They have to take a proper attention on any of the illegal products not to get exported or imported, to and from the country (U.S. Maritime Administration, 2009).
Technological challenges are the challenges faced by the Intermodal companies due to the additional costs of updated technologies, software used to calculate, maintain, update the stock and inventory control. Lack of implementation of integrated systems such as ERP systems, internet speed issues in some parts of the Australia, training to the employees of the company to use ERP systems, and chaos to the employees of the companies to use latest companies are some of the factors that led directly to technological challenges to the Intermodal companies.
Demographic challenges are faced by the company due to the ageing of the employees. Mostly, the roles and responsibilities of the employees in Intermodal companies are to travel long distances which leads to more fatigues and work pressures. The employees have to manage the stocks, inventory and the equipment. But after the age of 60, or the person having more experience feels like quitting the job as they feel hard to keep up at the same level of performance. Also, it is hard to learn the new technological systems or equipment at the older generation (Bask, Juga, & Laine, 2009).
There are a number of other challenges that the organization has to face during its day to day operations, the most common of these are the maintenance work of the vehicles, modes of transportation, the rise in fuel prices, security issues etc.
The challenges faced by these organizations are huge, however these can be resolved if they are handled in the correct manner. Mentioned below are a few solutions to the above-mentioned challenges faced by the intermodal companies. These may not be able to cover all the challenges faced by them, but definitely give way to a smoother functioning of intermodal organization. The solutions are:
Traffic regulation: The government must impose better traffic rules and regulations and must work towards repair and maintenance of the roads to improve the flow of the traffic (University of Florida, 2003).
Toll roads: Choosing the paths which have less number of roads with tolls and introducing the special discounts to the multi-axle or commercial vehicles can be of great help to the intermodal organizations.
Road changes: Changing the roads to create different routes specifically designed for the fast movement of commercial vehicles can help with overcoming this challenge (Giannika & McFarlan, 2012).
Distance: Putting forward better planning and hiring local suppliers to decrease the work pressure on drivers and traffic.
Animals: Preventing the animals from crossing the roads by implementing the fencing and providing the training and awareness to the drivers which are more prone to follow the path with wildlife and animals.
Conditions of roads: Maintaining the roads and implementing more warning signs on the roads so that driver can reach the correct destination at one go.
Funding disagreements: Influencing the categories of experience professionals who can carry out the maintenance and analyze the overall functioning of the company with less or minimal supervision and in an effective and efficient manner.
Quarantine: This is to ensure better planning strategies to be implemented and carrying out most recent and updated information on the restrictions and rules and regulations which are needed to be followed (Caris & Macharis, 2008).
Lack of integration systems: This can be overcome by implementing the technological systems which are compatible with all the other systems and providing the training to the employees of the company to use those systems in an efficient manner.
Rising fuel prices: This challenge can be solved by maintaining the vehicles on regular basis, taking partnership plans with the fuel stations, analyzing the best mode of transport and providing proper training to the drivers for improving the efficiency of the vehicles (Siggerud, 2009).
In this section, we discuss the steps that the government can take to improve the situation and working environment for intermodal companies in Australia. We have made suggestions which if implemented can help in making their working smoother and more efficient. The government should implement the technologies which are eco-friendly, for example, wind power and solar power so that there is less pressure on the petroleum fuels (Prince, 2015). The government should introduce different methods of productions for using materials which can minimize the waste and reduce the overall production costs. They should construct new routes which can be helpful in reducing the traffic congestion in the sub urban areas of the Australia. These roads would also be helpful during bad weather conditions such as snowfalls (Rahall Transportation Institute, 2004). The Australian government should also introduce the technological trainings to the drivers to maintain their vehicles so that the vehicles are maintained in a manner that maximizes the fuel efficiency and overall performance. They should control the hike on road tolls taxes, fuel prices etc. to reduce the overall cost. The government should pay immediate attention to the need of upgradation of roads. The roads must be maintained and should be in excellent condition. They should provide the information on the route changes and barriers during bad weather and the restrictions for importing and exporting goods to and from the country.
The thorough analysis of the working of these companies gives us an idea about the logistics of Australian Intermodal companies and the challenges they face at different stages while transferring the package from the source to the destination. This analysis report gives us a practical understanding of the various challenges faced by the Intermodal companies in Australia. The challenges analyzed are according to geographical, demographical, legislative, economic conditions of the Australia to deliver the packages on time, cost effectively and without any loss to the package (NTC, 2016). The main aim of creating the analysis report of the Intermodal company in Australia is to describe the current logistics domain of the Intermodal company, recognize the logistics challenges faced by the company and to recommend the best solutions which can be implemented to solve the problems faced by the Intermodal companies. The Intermodal companies are of a great help in giving a boost to all the organizations and businesses as well as the entire economy of the nation (National Transport Commission, 2009). The Intermodal companies makes use of Supply chain management which allows two or more organizations to work together to deliver the packages in a timely fashion. The Intermodal companies provide the users a flexibility to choose the mode of transportation to deliver the package to the right place and within a budget. The advantage of using Intermodal companies to deliver the package is the customer can choose the mode of transportation of his/her choice, while the disadvantage of using the Intermodal companies is that the cost of delivering the package may increase if the package required by the customer is singly delivered making the whole container empty.
References
Association, A. (2014). Australia’S Rail Industry. Retrieved from https://www.ara.net.au/sites/default/files/Australian%20Rail%20Industry%202014%20web.pdf
Bask, A., Juga, J., & Laine, J. (2009). Problems and prospects for intermodal transport: theoretical tools for practical breakthroughs? Retrieved from https://www.impgroup.org/uploads/papers/141.pdf
Caris, A., & Macharis, C. (2008). Planning Problems in Intermodal Freight Transport: Accomplishments and Prospects. Hasselt University. Retrieved from https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.460.2592&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Cole, D., Penne, L., Furst, T., & Stoner, N. (2008). Freight Mobility and Intermodal Connectivity in China. Retrieved from https://international.fhwa.dot.gov/pubs/pl08020/pl08020.pdf
Fagan, M. (2007). Introducing Competition into Natural Monopoly Industries: An Evaluation of Mandated Access to Australian Freight Railroads. Retrieved from https://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/rpp/Working%20papers/RPP_2007_05Fagan.pdf
Giannika, V., & McFarlan, D. (2012). Product Intelligence in Intermodal Transportation: The Dynamic Routing Problem. University of Cambridge. Retrieved from https://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/uploads/Research/DIAL/Resources/Papers/GM12_website.pdf
Moorebank. (2013). Moorebank Intermodal Terminal Environmental Impact Statement. Retrieved from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57721a5af7e0ab564bcfc84d/t/57b952c4d2b857c2cf32e782/1471763159275/STR_A003_MoorebankInfoBooklet_FINAL-for-website.pdf
National Transport Commission. (2009). Review of the National Transport Commission. Retrieved from https://infrastructure.gov.au/transport/australia/ntc/files/NTC_Review_Report.pdf
NTC. (2016). Freight and Passenger Transport in Australia. Retrieved from https://www.ntc.gov.au/Media/Reports/(D62E6EFC-36C7-48B1-66A7-DDEF3B04CCAE).pdf
Prince, T. (2015). Understanding the Intermodal challange. Retrieved from https://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/conferences/2015/performancemeasurement/Prince-1TM.pdf
Rahall Transportation Institute. (2004). Meeting the Transportation Challenges of the 21st Century: Intermodal Opportunities in the Appalachian Region. Intermodal Case Studies. Retrieved from https://www.arc.gov/assets/research_reports/MeetingTransportationChallenges_intermodalopportunitiesintheAppalachianRegion3.pdf
Richards, B. (2014). Transport and logistics insightsa. Retrieved from https://www.ferrierhodgson.com/au/-/media/ferrier/files/documents/publications/transport-and-logistics/transport-and-logistics-insights–january-2014.pdf
Russel, L. (2011). Metropolitan intermodal terminal study. Retrieved from https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/b2b/freight/rail-access-review-shipping-aust-mits-attachment.pdf
Siggerud, K. (2009). Challenges to and Potential Strategies for Developing Improved Intermodal Capabilities. GAO. Retrieved from https://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06855t.pdf
Systematics, C. (1999). Challenges and opportunities for an its intermodal freight program. U.S. Department of Transportation. Retrieved from https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/operations/its/99002/challopps.pdf
U.S. Maritime Administration. (2009). America’s Ports and Intermodal Transportation System. Retrieved from https://www.glmri.org/downloads/Ports&IntermodalTransport.pdf
UNESCAP. (2005). Intermodal Systems. Retrieved from https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/pub_2392_ch15.pdf
University of Florida. (2003). Intermodal Transportation: Problem Statement. Retrieved from https://www.bebr.ufl.edu/sites/default/files/Research%20Reports/intermodel_transportation_0.pdf
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