Logistics Management Strategies

This report explores the concept of intermodal transportation and how it operates in the logistics industry. It highlights the specific features of intermodal and how Glen Cameron Group has been operating in this industry since past years. The report identifies various logistics management strategies to solve operational issues of a particular intermodal company. It also discusses the logistics challenges faced by the industry in Australia and recommends solutions to resolve them. The report concludes by recommending proper solutions to logistics related problems to the company and the industry as well.

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

1LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Executive Summary
The aim of this report is to explore the concept of intermodal transportation and how it operates
in the logistics industry. In order to achieve the objectives, the paper at first highlights the
concept of intermodal and how it benefits various firms in getting their products delivered to the
consignee easily and within time. The specific features of intermodal are also described with
special details. The paper selects Glen Cameron group to show how they have been operating in
this industry since past years. The aim of selecting a company is to focus on the related
challenges the logistics industry in Australia faces and how they can be resolved. The report
finally concludes by giving an overview of the entire report and recommending to follow the
sustainability strategies or measures for establishing a better future.

2LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Specific features of an Intermodal...........................................................................................4
The Glen Cameron Group.......................................................................................................5
Current Logistics Network problems in Australia...................................................................6
How they might be resolved....................................................................................................8
Logistics Management Strategies or the Logistics Sustainability...........................................9
Recommendation and Conclusion.................................................................................................11
Reference.......................................................................................................................................12

3LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Introduction
The industries of modern world need ease, comfort and assistance in the disposal of their
products. One of the best ways to assist industries is a well-equipped and structured
transportation network. In this respect an excellent transportation network is the Intermodal
transportation (Qu, Bektaş and Bennell 2016). It is a type of shipping that includes many
transportation ways to ship goods from the seller to the buyer. It is probably the most cost –
effective to deliver products from one place to another. International intermodal on the other
hand enables to experience the domestic as well as international containers. International
intermodals ship across the state, border, country and around the world (Serper and Alumur
2016). The expansive use of intermodal shipping has given birth to many intermodal companies
who provide rail, truck, motor, ocean and air shipping services.
In Australia logistics and transport and transport is a large business which employs more
than 1.2 million people. There are companies like Glen Cameron Group, Air Road, Kings
Transport & Logistics which are running successfully satisfying the customers with their
solutions (Hong et al. 2017). This report will explore the important features of an intermodal and
identify various logistics management strategies to solve operational issues of a particular
intermodal company. The selected company for this report is an Australia based intermodal
company Glen Cameron Group which provides transport, logistics and supply chain services.
The report concludes by recommending proper solutions to logistics related problems to the
company and the industry as well.

4LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Discussion
Specific features of an Intermodal
In order to know the specific features of an intermodal, first the concept of intermodal
transport needs to be understood. The word ‘intermodal’ connotes that a single setting of freight
transportation is not enough. In order to avail more smoothness in transportation of products and
raw materials, industrial sectors prefer using multiple methods of transportation (Lam and Gu
2016). The intermodal transport for firms consists of a range of choices and the trucking facility
us the first section of this large process. Trucks have been considered to be the most preferred
mode of transportation in maximum advanced nations. Apart from trucks, the rails are also a
good option for carrying products. There are so many intermodal trucking businesses in the US.
The railroads are also sometimes used as hubs and transit centers.
The entire process of undertaking the trade is done in an organized manner. Box Drayage
is one of the organized program. In various commercial activities the intermodal drayage is used.
There are many types of box drayage which can be easily transported by the vehicles. One of the
primary sites for the development of the intermodal trucking business is an area of lengthy
beach. The long seaside intermodals services are truly effective because it is the hub for the
delivery services (Li, Negenborn and De Schutter 2015). Intermodal basically uses two different
modes of freight that is rail and truck in order to reach the products to the consignee from the
shipper. The process generally starts by shifting a container via rail or truck.
The railways provide the cost-efficient way of transport than the road transport. The
intermodal shipping reduces the cost of transport and encourages a greener environment. It is an
advantageous way to lessen the firm’s carbon footprint which the environmental threat

5LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
associated with the movement if freight, an economic activity. The intermodal transport is
closely related with logistics and supply chain. Logistics is all about reaching the right customer,
with right product in right quantity and quality on right time and cost. The supply chain
management on the other hand is the networks of different companies which work together to
deliver the product to the market. The primary focus of the traditional logistics is on distribution,
maintenance, procurement and inventory management. The supply chain management (SCM)
follows all of these activities and also adds activities including new product development,
marketing, customer service and finance (Bektaş, Crainic and Van Woensel 2017).
The Glen Cameron Group
The Glen Cameron Group is an intermodal company established in the year 1975
encompassing a fleet of more than 350 vehicles to conduct the transportation of the goods. They
also provide logistics services and supply chain services to the customers establishing a loyal and
committed customer circle (camerons.com 2018). This famous logistics company was started by
Glen Cameron when he was only 22 years old in Melbourne with only a tray truck. The passion
of Glen was to provide quality service to his little but growing customer base which assisted him
to turn the business into a large group with excellent profit within one year of
operation(camerons.com 2018). The company has now grown up to be a national logistics
company with multimillion dollar. The Glen Cameron Group persists to expand its business
throughout Australia with their huge collection of transportation services such as couriers, local
trucking, interstate transport, warehousing and others(camerons.com 2018). The best part about
the group is that the variety of technologies and transports the company has been using may have
evolved with the passing of years, but the committed and strong customer services they have
been maintaining is same as it was in the year 1975(camerons.com 2018).

6LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Current Logistics Network problems in Australia
The logistics challenges are everyday faced by the companies. These challenges can be
long continuing or new ones. Some of these challenges may be resolved and some may not be
overcome. The government, the company or the group are responsible for how they deal with the
problem effectively and strategically. Logistics plays a significant role in developing a country’s
economy. Australia is a remote, populated continent which is highly dependent on the raw
material export poses remarkable challenges for logistics and transport (Bing et al. 2016). The
logistics challenges in Australia is defined by challenges in terms of geography, environment,
demography, technology and legislation as a whole.
The geographical challenges - The geographical challenges such as urban and regional
challenges are serious for different companies. The cities of Australia like Melbourne where the
Glen Cameron Group is located face high traffic congestion every day(camerons.com 2018).
This large coastal city faces larger volumes of traffic every morning on the roads up to other
cities if Australia. The motorways and the freeways are even unable to reduce the congestion.
The excessive existence of toll roads affects the daily operation of a transportation company.
These are the extra costs for the vehicles. Another challenge is the tyranny of distance between
cities. The neighbor cities of Melbourne are Sydney and Brisbane which take more than over 10
hours of travel time which is an obstacle for transportation. Due to these long distances the
drivers on the roads get extremely fatigued and it is a big safety issue. Apart from these, although
the roads of Australia are quite well, the minimum population of the country leaves the condition
of the roads unnoticed. Path holes are unnoticed and unrepaired heightening the possibility of
accidents.

7LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
The demographical challenges - The ageing population of Australia is posing problems
in continuing the work process smoothly. In the logistics industry ageing population creates
problems because the older generation is finding hard to keep up with the new technologies and
facing difficulty in working efficiently like the younger generation. The population concentration
in the coastal cities like Melbourne and Sydney is also creating problems. The population
growth in the regional centers are comparably slower than the coastal centers (Li, Negenborn
and De Schutter 2015). The logistics networks like Glen Cameron are facing difficulty in
meeting the needs of the regional centers in the rush to meet the needs of high population in the
coastal areas.
The environmental challenges - Australia’s environmental conditions and climate change
poses a variety of challenges for the logistics networks. The global awareness and the subsequent
pressure also creates challenges for the companies. The pressure regarding environmental
responsibility on big companies cannot be ignored. Green logistics is minimizing waste which is
improving the environment and saving money also (Zijm et al.2015). Although the green
logistics is beneficial for the environment and human beings, it is becoming problematic for the
logistics providers to conduct the business operations smoothly by keeping in mind the
environmental issues. Apart from this problem, the natural disasters are also affecting the
industry. Since Australia is prone to bushfires, cyclones and floods the infrastructure and
necessary equipment get damaged and the goods do not reach the destination on time.
The technological challenges - The advancements of technologies pose special
challenges to this industry as they raise expenses. Although the technological advancement gives
the company aa competitive edge, it also demands a considerable amount of investment.
Technological system clashes give rise to delay in delivery and disruption in the delivery of

8LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
messages and information (Lam and Gu 2016). With the digital advancement in technology,
Australia s also depending on technology to a great deal. In this respect, aa failure of technology
stops the regular operation of the logistics companies and other companies which adds extra
costs for the firm.
The Legislative challenges - The national legislation create different kinds of challenges
for the logistics companies. The challenges can be in fields of operation, strategy or various
levels of business. Australia faces funding disagreement problem a lot. The federal government
and the state government fund the fields such as infrastructure, education and health. The
disagreement on who should be paying creates problem because each level of government tries
to adhere to their fixed budget. The logistics industry faces problems because due to this
disagreements, railways and roads do not get constructed or repaired on time and the
transportation suffers from accident issues. The governmental transport regulations demand to
use special kinds of vehicles or modify the existing vehicle again incurring additional expenses.
How they might be resolved
The above mentioned challenges can be resolved up to some extents by some potential
solutions. In order to fight with the traffic congestion issue, roads can be changed to improve the
flow of traffic (Allen et al. 2017). The use of public transport can reduce the car vehicles on the
road again reducing the traffic issue. The warehouse relocation from the congested areas can
solve the problem a lot. The roads of Melbourne need better and systematic route planning. In
order to deal with the toll problem, different routes that do not have such tolls should be used by
the logistics transports (Arvis et al.2018). The issue of long distance within the cities cannot be
solved but can be strategically handled by using road trains to deliver bigger loads at a time

9LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
maximizing the capacity of delivery per trip. The railway mode is the best way to use in this
respect. The need for distant transportation can be eliminated by having local suppliers.
The application of forced breaks can reduce the amount of driver fatigue and rate of
accidents. The path holes and poor conditioned roads cannot be solved if the government does
not take the initiative but can be avoided by using more road warning signs. There should be an
open platform where the community members can raise the problem of poor road condition and
inform the local government regarding the seriousness of road problems. The older roads need
to be repaired soon because there is a high chance that they go through sudden breakage. Using
environment friendly transportation is the best possible way to deal with the climate change /
green logistics issue. The waste materials if minimized can reduce the obstacles of regulations.
The number of trips can be reduced by sending bigger loads at a time thereby ultimately reducing
the pollutants emission rates. The weather forecast monitoring planning can be developed to
avoid natural disasters and poor condition weather. There should be better cooling equipment in
the vehicles and the warehouses.
The problem of ageing population can be dealt with additional training, job rotation and
good employee management. In order to avoid the funding disagreements problem, the
infrastructure projects should be accomplished by lobbying groups without any disruption. The
technological challenges can be minimized by having multiple technology options so that if one
technology fail somehow, the others work. It must be ensured that all the systems are compatible
and in good collaboration with the supply chain.
Logistics Management Strategies or the Logistics Sustainability
It is common that maximum companies fail to align the business growth drive and
environmental issues. The topic of sustainability is closely connected with running the business

10LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
operations without affecting the environment by anyway. In order to achieve sustainability, the
Glen Cameron Group and the Australian government should involve themselves to reduce and
eliminate the reasons behind environmental problems. The most effective sustainable solution is
the improvement in the individual operation as we as the movements to enhance the efficiency of
the means of transportation (Ilie-Zudor et al. 2015). However, a shipper cannot control
everything but it can see how its own company is doing with the transportation from place to
place. The logistic sustainability lowers the carbon footprint if a company and heightens the
customer retention of the network. First of all, the government and the company should
collaboratively try to control the carbon emission rates. Since many vehicles can run on fossil
fuels, it is an eco-friendly solution to the problem (Wang et al.2018). The reduction in the
delivery trips can cut down the amount of noxious gases release from the vehicles. In this way
the company will not have to face the environmental violation penalties. Furthermore, use of
high efficiency modes such as the ocean transportation or electric transportation can assist the
shipper in establishing an effective and sustainable solution. The company should reduce the
amount of waste products by not encouraging extra fuel costs. For example, if a vehicle moves
without goods from one place to another, that is also a type of loss or waste.
The sustainability of the transportation will be increased if the materials are handled with
care and responsibility. The government on the other hand needs to reduce the poor condition of
Australian roads and make it suitable for the transports to run. The government regulations for
ensuring future resources necessary for the coming generations to survive should be stricter to
promote sustainability (Monios 2016). Such regulations not only increase the environmental
sustainability but also supports the logistics sustainability. Since nowadays the customers keep
every news about the everything on earth either via social media or newspapers, the image of the

11LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
company can highly influence the customers they hold and the image depends on the way they
work and the quality of service they provide (Montreuil 2016). A single drawback on the part of
the company can backlash and affect the future sustainability of the company. In this respect the
company can use a 3PL concentrated on the logistics optimization and sustainability. The
effective sustainability practices can also be used that will minimize the company operation
scrutiny and elevate the company image. Although apparently sustainability seems difficult, but
it is nothing but the adoption and implementation of some actions to ensure huge resources for
the future.
Recommendation and Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that Intermodal transportation
is one of the best methods for shipping that includes many transportation ways to ship goods
from the seller to the buyer. It is probably the most cost –effective to deliver products from one
place to another. The Australia based Glen Cameron Group is a successful logistics company
which provides the best customer service and also tries to do it in a cost-friendly and eco-friendly
manner. However, the company faces some challenges in running the transportation business
smoothly due to some basic problems of Australia. Although all the challenges cannot be
resolved properly, they can be reduced to some extent by adopting some measures. The
Australian government and companies like Glen Cameron should work together to experience
sustainability for the environment as well as for the company. Hence, it is recommended to
follow the above mentioned strategies to see a better a successful and better future.

12LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Reference
Allen, J., Bektaş, T., Cherrett, T., Friday, A., McLeod, F., Piecyk, M., Piotrowska, M. and Zaltz
Austwick, M., 2017. Enabling a Freight Traffic Controller for Collaborative Multidrop Urban
Logistics: Practical and Theoretical Challenges. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the
Transportation Research Board, (2609), pp.77-84.
Arvis, J.F., Ojala, L., Wiederer, C., Shepherd, B., Raj, A., Dairabayeva, K. and Kiiski, T.,
2018. Connecting to Compete 2018: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy. World Bank.
Bektaş, T., Crainic, T.G. and Van Woensel, T., 2017. From managing urban freight to smart city
logistics networks. In Network Design and Optimization for Smart Cities (pp. 143-188).
Bing, X., Bloemhof, J.M., Ramos, T.R.P., Barbosa-Povoa, A.P., Wong, C.Y. and van der Vorst,
J.G., 2016. Research challenges in municipal solid waste logistics management. Waste
management, 48, pp.584-592.
camerons.com 2018. Glen Cameron Group – Our aim is to deliver on time, every time, damage
free.. [online] Camerons.com.au. Available at: https://camerons.com.au/ [Accessed 16 Sep.
2018].
Hong, L., Yan, Y., Ouyang, M., Tian, H. and He, X., 2017. Vulnerability effects of passengers'
intermodal transfer distance preference and subway expansion on complementary urban public
transportation systems. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 158, pp.58-72.
Ilie-Zudor, E., Ekárt, A., Kemeny, Z., Buckingham, C., Welch, P. and Monostori, L., 2015.
Advanced predictive-analysis-based decision support for collaborative logistics
networks. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 20(4), pp.369-388.

13LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
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).
Zijm, H., Klumpp, M., Clausen, U. and Hompel, M.T., 2015. Logistics and supply chain
innovation. Springer.