Perth’s road transport operators have been identified as the key to solving Perth’s growth challenges and, in keeping with the adage ‘knowledge is power’, transport and courier companies are being asked to provide data for a new study of logistics in the city.
Concerns raised by Western Roads Federation’s Metro Logistics Group regarding planning, parking, access and other issues have led to the big question, what do we actually move in, around and out of the city to support its community and businesses?
Now theWRF is calling on organisations involved in moving goods and materials in and out of Perth to work with them on a new study to map the road transport logistics tasks in the city.
The fact is no one really knows, and because no one knows, the logistics planning for cities such as Perth are largely either ignored or put in the too hard basket.
“The fact is we do know and it’s our industry that has the knowledge and information in our transport and fleet management systems. “ said Nick Dadamo, Chair of WRF’s Metro Logistics Group.
Following representation from WRF, a project has been commissioned with the Uiversity of WA’s Planning and Transport Research Centre (PATREC) to map and illustrate a day in the life of road transport logistics supporting the city and the challenges it faces.
The WRF’s Metro Logistics Group’s diverse members (from light commercials, to trucks and mobile plant) supply, build, move and extract the materials and items required to support Perth and this means they are able to access a wide range of data sources.
The WRF is now calling on its members, plus food and retail delivery companies, couriers, waste companies, removalists, construction and maintenance companies, energy providers and other companies who use commercial vehicles, trucks or mobile plant to support the city, to supply a sample of their fleet’s tracking data to the PATREC study. The data will be whitewashed to remove commercial identification.
“PATREC has adapted some powerful vehicle route tracking software initially developed by Commonwealth agency BITRE to help us illustrate some of the issues that truck operators face as they go about their day to day business in the city,” says Tim Hoffman, PATREC Project Leader. “We have successfully trialled the software and are now inviting transport companies to submit sample GPS fleet management trip data so that we can explore how to use it to map and illustrate the logistics tasks within the city.
“The initial focus will be on vehicles which have to negotiate CBD streets, loading zones, parking spaces etc., for their daily business, for example couriers, waste collection, retail deliveries. We would greatly appreciate the chance to map and illustrate how your vehicles and drivers need to operate to meet customer requirements in often congested circumstances.
“All commercial identifiers will be removed from any data provided and will be handled with strict confidentiality. Data will not be published, nor will the ownership or driver of any vehicle studied be identified.”
Companies wishing to participate or seeking more information are requested to email Cam Dumesn, WRF CEO, at cam.dumesny@westernroads.com.au
