Logistics Management: Challenges and Solutions in Australia

This report discusses the logistics management problems in Australia and recommends solutions to resolve them. It covers geographical, environmental, demographical, technological, and legislative barriers faced by Australian logistics companies.

Running Head: LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT
Logistics Management
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Executive Summary
The aim of the current report is to deal with the current logistics transportation problems that
Australia is facing and provide necessary solutions to the problem. In order to achieve the
objectives, the report first introduces the concept of what is an intermodal. It then demonstrates
how organizations are being highly helped by such supports. the report further analyses the
geographical, environmental, demographical technological and legislative barriers that
Australian logistics companies are facing and provides useful remedies too. The paper finally
concludes by giving an overview of the entire report.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The modern industries need assistance to support their operations and make the entire
business deal safe and easy. A well – structured transportation can support the business
industries to make bigger deals. An intermodal transportation is one of the best ways to assist the
organizations so that they can make the shipping of their products easily without worries. This
extensive use of this new process has introduced many intermodal companies who provide a
variety of vehicles to transport one container from one place to another (Li, Negenborn and De
Schutter 2015). The present report will highlight the logistics management problems in Australia
and recommend how these issues can be resolved. The paper will conclude by giving an
overview of the entire report and highlight the important points.
Discussion
Australia is full of such intermodal companies because the currently developing country
has a large logistics and transportation industry. Through this kind of shipping the goods are
transported to the purchaser from the merchant. Intermodal is not a particular single way
shipping. It consists of various methods (Lam and Gu 2016). There are two types of intermodals.
The first one is domestic intermodals which only deal within the country and another is
international intermodals which trade with the domestic locations as well as the places beyond
the country. The options the intermodal companies prefer to carry their products are the railroads
and the trucks. Apart from these air crafts are also used for delivering products.
Australia facing big logistics problems - The companies of Australia everyday face huge
logistics problems. The problems can be new or old, the problems can be resolvable or non-
resolvable It is up to the companies which deal with how strategies are implemented in the

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operations of the company to get the competitive edge over their market rivals. The economy of
an entire country can be developed by the logistics industry. It is known well that Australia is a
different country where people every day face a range of technological, environmental,
geographical, legislator and demographical problems (Monios 2016). The demographical
challenge that the country is facing is with the ageing population of the nation. In this industry
and in other industries of Australia, it is a major problem to align the modern technologies with
the older generations. They are facing hardships in dealing with the modern hi-tech world. The
younger generation is more capable than the older. Another problem is that seaside cities of
Australia such as Sydney and Melbourne are suffering from excessive population concentration.
People prefer to stay near the sea therefore the population growth rates are higher in the coastal
areas than mid-Australia. The logistics do not get the chance to cater to the desires and needs of
the people belonging to other parts of the country.
Technology can be a boon and also can be a bane. With the soaring growth in the
technological advances, the expense to use and maintain those appliances also get hiked. A
significant amount has to be invested on the equipment. The progression has made the countries
extremely tech-dependent and if a system crashes someday, thee regular operations of the
organization gets disturbed. This unexpected breakdown in any system incurs extra costs and
also disrupts the work proceedings.
The geographical challenges solely depend on the location of the company. Due to the
growing population in the seaside cities of Australia, these roads everyday face a bigger issue
that is the traffic blocks. Traffic congestion is an extremely big issue these days Australia is
facing the most because people go to work, business, school and colleges in the morning from
the coastal areas to the city and on the ways there can be seen a long queue of vehicles which

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block the road. There are road divisions to control the traffic such as motorways and freeways
but the issue is where it was before without any improvement. More over the toll roads at short
intervals on the roads significantly harass the daily operation s of the logistics companies
because they are always on the way to delivery. Apart from these problems the long distance
between the cities affect the transportation services because the drivers who are on the way to
delivery face tend to fall asleep and die in accidents (Qu, Bektaş and Bennell 2016). The long
distance between the cities have dangerously heightened the seriousness of the safety issue.
Although the seaside areas of the country are over populated, the overall population of the
country is no much. Therefore, nobody from the common mass raises the problem with the poor-
conditioned and broken roads. Years after years the government stay unnoticed about the facts
and they are left unrepaired causing unnecessary troubles.
It is known that the weather condition pf the land of Australia is not always favorable.
The logistics networks come across a variety of challenges when the climate suddenly changes
contrary to the expectations. Apart from this the companies are supposed to keep up with the
global awareness and use their vehicles accordingly. The government regulations regarding
environmental sustainability should not be neglected by the transport industry. However, the
green logistics (cutting short the amount of waste) is supportive towards the well –being of
human beings and the entire environment (Serper and Alumur 2016). It is hard to maintain the
business operations along with keeping in terms with the environmental responsibilities. One
cannot avoid or overlook the bushfire issue of Australia. The natural disasters like floods and
cyclones do affect the delivery of the goods in exact time and place. The transportations get
harassed a lot due to such hindrances on the way.

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The logistics companies get regulated and limited by various national legislations. The
challenges can be faced in the strategy, business operations or in other fields. The Australian
people are hugely demotivated due to the imbalance between the state and federal government.
These governments do not wish to go beyond their annual budget plan and therefore the common
people face railways and road repairing problems. The government does not at all pay heed to
the common need of people but they charge in the carbon emission rates of each vehicle and
demanding all to use special and advanced vehicles thereby again inviting extra costs.
How to resolve them - Although it is true that there are plenty of challenges that the
Australian logistics companies face in their daily operations and delivery of goods, but some of
the problems can be avoided if not resolved from the roots. There must be some strong and
useful solutions. The transports can choose the other options such as short cuts or other routes
not to get webbed in the traffic every day in the same manner (Zijm et al.2015). The public has
to be aware that the use of public bus, trams or trains can cut down the number of vehicles on the
road and it will also save their money on resources. The congested areas such as the coastal
regions have to be free of warehouses which will solve the issue a lot. A disciplined road
planning is much needed for the roads of Melbourne (Montreuil 2016). The toll problem can be
solved by not taking that way where toll booths are there. It takes a lot of money as well as it
consumes the time also for the logistics companies. Bigger loads delivery at one time is a
significant point to focus on. Following this technique, the resources can be saved, the carbon
emission rates can be reduced and also the long distance problem between the cities can be
bridged by sending more goods per trip (Wang et al. 2018).
In order to deal with the road accidents, the vehicles must be compelled to take breaks so
that the drivers get rid of the journey fatigue and start afresh. The issue of path holes and broken

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roads can be reduced by collaboratively informing the municipality regarding the condition.
Warning signs must be there to make people aware of the road breaks. Water resources and
oxygen tanks must be there inside the vehicles to protect from sudden bushfires. Having multiple
technologies as back- up plan might lessen the despair that comes along with the breakdown of a
particular technology. The Australia n jobs have to be rotational and the younger generation must
be given chances to perform well.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that organizations do get highly
benefitted by the intermodal transportations which is possibly the best way to deliver goods from
the merchant to the consignee. It is a cost- friendly way to deliver goods from place to another.
However, the logistics companies of Australia are facing huge problems in transporting thee
containers. The trouble comes from various fields such as geographic, demographic,
environmental, technological and legislative. These cannot be resolved properly but can be
controlled and reduced to some extents. The organizations as well as the government of Australia
have to work together to make the above mentioned changes otherwise the situation will remain
the change. In order to deal with the contrary environment of Australia safety have to be taken.

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References
Lam, J.S.L. and Gu, Y., 2016. A market-oriented approach for intermodal network optimisation
meeting cost, time and environmental requirements. International Journal of Production
Economics, 171, pp.266-274.
Li, L., Negenborn, R.R. and De Schutter, B., 2015. Intermodal freight transport planning–A
receding horizon control approach. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging
Technologies, 60, pp.77-95.
Monios, J., 2016. Institutional challenges to intermodal transport and logistics: governance in
port regionalisation and hinterland integration. Routledge.
Montreuil, B., 2016. Omnichannel Business-‐to-‐Consumer Logistics and Supply Chains:
Towards Hyperconnected Networks and Facilities.
Qu, Y., Bektaş, T. and Bennell, J., 2016. Sustainability SI: multimode multicommodity network
design model for intermodal freight transportation with transfer and emission costs. Networks
and Spatial Economics, 16(1), pp.303-329.
Serper, E.Z. and Alumur, S.A., 2016. The design of capacitated intermodal hub networks with
different vehicle types. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 86, pp.51-65.
Wang, Y., Peng, S., Assogba, K., Liu, Y., Wang, H., Xu, M. and Wang, Y., 2018.
Implementation of Cooperation for Recycling Vehicle Routing Optimization in Two-Echelon
Reverse Logistics Networks. Sustainability (2071-1050), 10(5).

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Zijm, H., Klumpp, M., Clausen, U. and Hompel, M.T., 2015. Logistics and supply chain
innovation. Springer.